Running time: 111 minutes
Starring: Samuel L Jackson, Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington, Ron Glass, Justin Chambers
Rating 5 out of 10
Neil LaBute is no stranger to controversy: as a writer/director his previous outings include the scabrous In The Company of Men and Your Friends and Neighbours, and he also wrote the play Fat Pig, currently making West End audiences wriggle in their seats. In Lakeview Terrace he tackles the subject of race relations in LA, albeit from a screenplay by David Loughery, whose previous Hollywood credits include The Three Musketeers remake and one of the original Star Trek films. It's a simple enough premise and one which is well established in the film's first half. Samuel L Jackson is Abel Turner, a tyrannical LA cop and a single father who rules his teenage children with a rod of iron. They live in a pretty house on the terrace of the title and as the film begins distant forest fires are beginning to make the news. When the house next door is bought by a mixed race couple (a likeable Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington), Abel just cannot stand it, and seems determined to get them out at any cost.
His methodical and psychological campaign gradually begins to undermine the newly-weds: on the face of it he seems like a charming neighbour, but gradually he makes their lives more and more uncomfortable.
Despite pitching the mood just right for the first half, LaBute and co go dramatically wrong as the film's denouement approaches. It becomes clear that this isn't a film about race at all, but simply about a nutter who can't bear seeing the people next door have a good time. Plotlines become stretched and any idea of the truth soon gets lost in a mix-up of Hollywood cliches.
It's a shame given the set-up, mood and performances, but there is a distinct feeling that the studio may have had heavyhanded involvement, particularly in a finale which is little more than laughable. Definitely one to wait for on video.
Paul Hurley
