Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington
Director: Neil LaBute
Release Date: September 19, 2008
Running Time: 110 min
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Distributor: Screen Gems

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Lakeview Terrace succeeds for the most part because it doesn’t present itself as a joke or parody. What seems to be a plot derived from a Martin Lawrence comedy is gradually heightened to a drastic state of realism that unfortunately doesn’t really reach its full potential.

Oddly enough, the forest fires that constantly blaze behind the homes in an upmarket LA community called Lakeview Terrace can be seen as a hidden metaphor for the main character's racism: a constant burning that could wipe out the entire forest. Bitter racism hasn’t been presented with such strong construction and straight forward clarity for quite some time, as far as movies go.

A recently married inter-racial couple, Chris and Lisa (a substance-free Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington), move into Lakeview Terrace with the hope that a prosperous future lies ahead for them. However, the community's name is deceiving regarding what really lurks beneath it’s pristine image. They move in next door to a widower, an LAPD official named Abel Turner. He’s played by Samuel L. Jackson with such cunning authority that it is nearly impossible to see his character bending in any other direction than the one it’s currently located in. Not only is he a cop who has his own odd way of handling criminals, but he also manages to lay before his two children the foundation of a strict and confining lifestyle - he tells his son to change out of his Kobe shirt in exchange for a Shaq one, for example. But all of his codes and morals are challenged when he finds out that the white man next door is married to a black woman.

Director Neil LaBute dissects human morality, human codes and human decency. It’s these three elements that he uses to fuel a fire that is already ablaze and dangerous. Abel does everything in his power to dismantle not only Chris and Lisa’s marriage but also their lives, with Chris’s morality constantly at stake.

Abel’s sick jokes start slowly. There aren't going to be any Jell-O molds sculpted by Abel here. He hopes they’ll get the message, but when they don’t he unleashes a flurry of ruthless slurs and relentless action. But what can one possibly do? He’s a cop, remember? But of course there has to be a reason for all of his madness. Abel has a nicely wrapped tragedy of his own against which he struggles constantly.

LaBute had an idea of originality and, to some degree, of genius. Sadly, the script wasn't fully penned by him. Instead we have two hacks, David Loughery and Howard Korder, who decided to adopt a different and more common means of concluding the film. In the last act of Lakeview Terrace, it sidesteps raw truth and use it simply as a stepping stone to move forward toward a more conventional thriller ending.

Film Rating: ** 1/2 out of ****

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