2002, R, 99 minutes

When I first saw the ad campaign for Changing Lanes, I assumed it was going to be your regular half-assed cat and mouse type of movie, probably one with no originality whatsoever. The marketing people over at Paramount really did this film a great injustice. Changing Lanes is essentially a tale of morality and how good-hearted men in the right (or wrong) situations are capable of almost anything. The setup is clever: it begins when two very different men (Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Affleck) are in a car accident that changes their lives forever. Jackson's character ends up missing a court hearing while Affleck's character, an attorney, leaves behind a very important file that will affect not only him but the livelihood of his entire firm.

The story offers a number of twists and has some great scenes, but in the end it's all about the performances. Affleck is subtle and gets back into some real character work as opposed to commercialized junk, and Jackson covers new ground, playing a man who is a screw-up rather than a calm and collected bad-ass. The real standout, however, is Amanda Peet, who I had just about written off as an actress after appearing in dud after dud. She may only be on screen about ten minutes, but the scene where she more-or-less tries to convince her husband to join the dark-side makes Changing Lanes worth watching all by itself.