"This is all a tightrope. You've got to learn to balance," Ben Affleck's boss tells him when he discovers the law's just "one big, vicious gamble".

Changing Lanes reveals the risks people take in a high-stakes, big-money game. Can you hack it? Can you live with it?

This is exciting and gripping stuff. It's a superior 'Bad Day' movie in the Falling Down vein.

Set off a chain reaction which pushes sane blokes to the edge then watch what happens.

High-flying young lawyer Gavin Banek (Ben Affleck) is careering down the New York City freeway to a crucial court hearing to get control of a dead tycoon's $150m charitable fund.

Coming up on the inside, call-centre operator and recovering alcoholic Doyle Gipson (Samuel L Jackson) is late for his children's custody hearing.

You just know the two are going to collide. With his eye on the time, Banek flees the scene and chucks a cheque at Doyle, not stopping to offer a lift - and leaving a vital file behind.

Gipson's got it, of course, and he's pretty angry. Especially when he gets to court to find his kids are moving state. He wants revenge and Banek wants his file back, and so the two men get manipulative and nasty.

Samuel L Jackson's performance is intense as a man desperate to ditch the bottle and win back his wife and sons.

Ben Affleck's maturity shines through as the idealist who now lies and cheats his way to getting the lost documents - even when he learns that his corrupt boss (Sydney Pollack) may have been setting him up the whole way along.

The young attorney's icy, professional wife pushes him on with an ultimatum to maintain their luxurious life.

Both men need to make serious decisions. Will they do the right thing?

Their escalating spiral of revenge makes the film totally compelling - the best thriller in months.

Aidan Conway