Lakeview Terrace

The line between socially awkward and menacing can be a fine one: Is the sidewalk transient's growl for spare change a request or a threat? The guy who corners you at a party and rambles on about his sad life may simply be drunk and lonely—or a crazed psycho. Social interactions require a sometimes delicate dance, as Chris and Lisa, a young interracial couple who recently moved to a tony suburbian cul-de-sac find out when they meet their neighbor, Abel Turner. Turner (played by Samuel Jackson) is a racist police officer who has Issues with a capital I. A strict disciplinarian to his two children, Turner patrols the neighborhood and makes it clear that he doesn't like Chris and Lisa.

But why? Does he disapprove of interracial marriages? Does he have his own eye on Lisa? As it turns out, there are far deeper things going on—though the film eventually provides only a semi-satisfying "explanation" for Abel's racial and sexual issues.

Much of Lakeview Terrace is an ever-escalating war between neighbors. Abel's menace is palpable, and Chris and Lisa are in the midst of their own relationship problems (she wants kids, he doesn't; her father is unimpressed with Chris, etc.) Just in case the stakes aren't high enough, throughout the film there's an encroaching brushfire which may end up destroying Lakeview Terrace even if the warring neighbors don't.

Lakeview Terrace wants to be more provocative than it is, with its themes of racism and violence. But that effort is undermined because some of the film's themes (such as that of manhood: should Chris defend his wife's honor?) seem forced and flimsy. The last ten minutes seem to be contrived and capricious, almost as if the filmmakers weren't quite sure how to wrap things up. I'm guessing the DVD extras will feature some alternative endings, hopefully some of which will be better than this one.

Samuel Jackson is effective, but is in familiar territory; his psycho, by-the-book badass shtick has been done before, and arguably better, in films such as Pulp Fiction and Black Snake Moan. Overall, Lakeview Terrace is a flawed but decent film that could have used a rewrite or two.