Changing Lanes (2002)

Superb drama directed by Roger Michell.

Samuel L. Jackson plays Doyle Gipson, an insurance salesman and recovering alcoholic fighting for custody of his children. Ben Affleck plays Gavin Banek, a lawyer engaged in shady dealings in the firm of his father-in-law (Sydney Pollack). The two men’s lives collide, literally, when they have a minor road crash in New York. This event sets in motion a sequence of escalating dramas, giving them both the worst day of their lives. 

It’s extremely powerful because it engages on a moral level, exploring what happens to reasonable people in unreasonable situations. Jackson and Affleck are at their best. The supporting characters, including Gipson's wife Valerie (Kim Staunton) and his AA sponsor (William Hurt), are also excellently drawn. 

I couldn’t imagine how the ending could satisfy, but somehow they pulled it off.

Michael Clayton (2007)

Confusing “corporate wrongdoing” thriller starring George Clooney and Tilda Swinton. 

I found the plot needlessly complicated, with a few loose ends, and the “four days earlier” contrivance made that worse.

Clooney is always highly watchable, even if his perfect, unruffled hair looks too good to be true. Tom Wilkinson is compelling as an attorney in the middle of a mental meltdown.

But storytelling that loses you so early on can be frustrating to play catch-up with, and for that reason I never felt fully engrossed.