At first my heart sunk a little when Braden suggested that we go see "Changing Lanes" tonight after dinner. The preview kind of overtaxed my moral and emotional adrenaline enough - I didn't really want to spend two more hours with a messy ethical drama.

Also, while I really respect Samuel L. Jackson, I didn't know if I could bear him in any more contrite, broken (and second billed) parts after, oh, well, every movie that he's been in throughout the 1990s. He deserves better.

I also wasn't sure about Ben Affleck. Here's a guy that I'm just hoping to fail, but he never seems to. He's done every role rather well and doesn't seem to have the baggage of the rest of Young Hollywood(tm). Rich, famous, good looks - I couldn't bear to see that he's a great actor.

We went anyways. And I really liked this movie. It's the answer to the weak moralizing of "Pay It Forward" (Braden calls it "F*** it Forward"). Like the anti-trancendentalists of literature (Hawthorne, Poe), "Changing Lanes" really gets at the basic depravity of man before showing any signs of hope. And the scariest part - you come to understand that you, yes you, the normal person in the third row, are capable of all of these horrible things.

And a new favorite line. S.L. Jackson's friend, played by William Hurt, waxes eloquent on society and the responsibility of each human being: "It's a covenant! A covenant that you won't go batshit!"

Couldn't have put it better myself =)