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Ethics 101
Sitting in the theatre, watching Changing Lanes, you’ll think you’re back in high school, learning about the morality of life. If you found a wallet full of money, would you return it to its owner? The A student would say he would mail it back with a letter explaining when and where he found it. The failing student would spend the money, max out the credit cards, and sell the fake leather to his friend. No matter how you look at it, it’s a matter of choice and ethicality.
Changing Lanes asks these questions. Of course, we’re not dealing with a wallet here. An important file takes its place, and a lot of other things factor into the choices made that would make the moral pupil scratch his head in confusion.
I really want to take this script, sit down, and, with a big, fat red Sharpie, mark out all the unimportant characters, situations, confrontations, and very bad analogies that smother this thriller from bumper to bumper. But I’m afraid there would be nothing left. Also, first-time screenwriter Chap Taylor doesn’t fill all the holes in. Why wouldn’t Gavin Banek (Ben Affleck) or Doyle Gibson (Samuel L. Jackson) ever call the cops? This movie would have been over before it began if that happened. Roll the credits. The sensible and most believable route was never taken. Thus, chaos.
The film is a battle between two men who feel that the other owes him something or has something that he wants. Along with this, there is an inner-self battle that both men have to face. With the crappy sappy conclusion and some horrible dialogue here and there, Changing Lanes merely preaches instead of entertaining. You’re better off going to the library and picking up a book of Aesop’s fables — one with colorful illustrations.
The moral of the story no matter how cliché it sounds: Two wrongs don’t make a right. D+
