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Changing Lanes | 2002 | R | - 1.3.5

While rushing to court to file legal documents, a young attorney (Ben Affleck) is involved in a car accident and causes another car to crash too. Instead of staying to exchange insurance documents, he rushes off leaving the man in the other car (Samuel L. Jackson) stranded. The difference between right and wrong is stretched to the limit when both men seek revenge for the loss they feel they have each suffered because of the other's indifference. Also with Toni Collette, Sydney Pollack and William Hurt. [1:39]

SEX/NUDITY 1 - A man and woman kiss a couple of times and a man and woman nearly kiss. Couples hug a couple of times. There are a few references to men having extramarital affairs.

VIOLENCE/GORE 3 - Two men are beaten on the face and head with a telephone receiver after they taunt and mock another man (we see one man with blood on his head). A man's tire falls off his car while he is driving; sparks fly from the rim, the car swerves through traffic and slams into a cement lane divider (we see the man with a bloody cheek and nose). A man drives recklessly in very heavy traffic, gets pinched between two lanes of traffic, swerves and causes another car to slam head-on into an exit ramp barricade (no one appears to be injured). A man is restrained, pushed to the floor and handcuffed by police officers when he causes a disturbance at a school. A man yells in frustration, throws a computer monitor against a window and kicks it. There are several scenes where characters yell at and threaten each other. A man has blood on his hands. A man insults two men. There are moments of tension throughout the movie when characters struggle with moral decisions (taking revenge or not).

LANGUAGE 5 - 7 F-words, 7 scatological terms, 5 mild obscenities, 2 religious profanities, 9 religious exclamations. There is a conversation between two men in a bar where there are racist references.

SUBSTANCE USE - People are shown drinking alcohol, and one character is a recovering alcoholic and we see an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Revenge, forgiveness, arrogance, misunderstandings, patience, disappointment, fraud, forgery, fatherhood, divorce, separation, alcoholism, anger, bankruptcy, infidelity, unscrupulous legal practices, Catholicism, letting go.

MESSAGE - Do the right thing. Seeking revenge can ruin your own life.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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