The Race Card

Movies: Lakeview Terrace

Directed by Neil LaBute, Lakeview Terrace is basically a showcase for Samuel L. Jackson to act like a badass. But not a cool badass, like in Pulp Fiction. Just a crazy, racist badass.

Jackson plays Abel Turner, an LAPD officer and single father, who is chagrined when he finds out that an interracial couple (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington) have moved into the McMansion next door. He begins a campaign of terror in attempts to get the couple to move away. It starts out relatively innocent (refusing to turn off the security lights that shine directly into the couple's bedroom window) and quickly escalates to psychotic (slashing tires, hiring a goon to break into the couple's house).



The film is obviously attempting to say something about race relations in LA, but instead of using a scalpel to dissect the intricacies of a very complex and sensitive topic, LaBute and the screenwriters use a sledgehammer. Abel's racism is beside the point--even racists can conduct themselves with a little control and dignity--his main motivation isn't the fact that he doesn't like to see white men with black women, but that he is certifiably insane. And violent. And has the entitlement (and gun) of a power-hungry cop.

I like Neil LaBute. His plays and films are often as insightful as they are biting. In the Company of Men, which he wrote and directed in 1997, is a cynical and ugly look into male competition and cruelty. His play/screenplay The Shape of Things explore the bottomless capacity people have to manipulate one another and to allow themselves to be manipulated. It's dark stuff, and god knows I don't want to live in a LaBute screenplay, but Lakeview Terrace is ham-fisted and half-assed compared to his earlier work (and yes, I realize LaBute didn't write the screenplay for this film). Lakeview Terrace is Crash, only with one storyline instead of 12.

As for entertainment value, Lakeview Terrace is moderately thrilling. I did like the chemistry between Patrick Wilson and Jackson. Wilson's character, Chris, is a nice, white, liberal guy who has obviously never been seriously challenged by another man. Jackson, of course, plays the ultimate alpha male--absolutely secure and unyielding in his worldview. Once Chris realizes that he can't talk rationally with Abel, he must step up to the plate in a way he hasn't before. It's an interesting dynamic.

But at the end of the day, Lakeview Terrace is just another film about a nutcase terrorizing innocent people. It promises to say something interesting about race and/or masculinity, but fails to deliver.

3 out of 5 stars