"Lakeview Terrace" (2008) - Movie Review

What begins as parental protection paranoia soon becomes a terrorizing campaign for the menacing and troubled black cop Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson) towards the newly wed interracial couple Chris (Patrick Wilson) and Lisa (Kerry Washington) moving next door to Abel. But it is one man’s quest to find reason for his hatred towards this particular couple alone. He wants to find it because he can justify his hate than solving his problem. A man’s proclaimed righteousness and a proclaimed protective father becomes the demise of what could have been a good person. “Lakeview Terrace” is a well made film not because that it has the performance it needs but due to the pity we are left in for the character we like and hate.

Chris and Lisa are madly in love and have the regular newly wed couple problem of whether to have a child as their next step. Chris expectedly wants time and Lisa while understanding begins to get restless. She could have been fine unless for the troubles from next door. A hard dad, a tough street cop and a man unable to find truce with his loss Samuel L. Jackson brings jitters of uncomfortable and scary hell not alone to Chris but to the audience. As soon as the couple moves in, he has a conversation with another Asian neighbour and you would not notice that this guy can be a racist. But it is not the racism and it points to his root of the problem as the end approaches. It is individual and his perceptions with the society giving enough to feed the anger.

Let us forget about the race and take this person for who he really is. He is seriously can be our next door neighbour or friend’s dad or the teacher kid’s would go after school tuition. Abel wants the “right” things to be learned and he could not accept the teaching of marrying between races is the right thing. When he confides or bullies because it is nearly impossible to read the motives of this person and as Chris naively has hope of something of resolve coming out as we do, Abel tells about how he lost his wife. That happens after Abel cuts off the branches of the newly placed tree by Chris and fighting with branches and what not over the fence with him. Chris is agonized on who he has become and what the deal with this guy is and Abel comes to lie down and see the memories of his wife over a drink. They are in the same bar and that is the enlightenment of this character’s hate especially to him. He realizes why he has so much rage flowered upon these two or precisely on Chris who is all but nice people. Unreasonable and the man feel more fuelled after that.

It cannot be more subtle and be louder on its approach on race. The turmoil Abel creates for these two and the problems they have as any married couple would have are put in a perspective many would not notice in their life. How much of external forces stir up simple problems into a disaster in day to day life of a family. In the absence of Abel, Chris and Lisa would at least get an opportunity to hear each other out best but the situation he puts on becomes threatening for their marriage.

If Samuel L. Jackson dominates the script which lets you a slit wide into this mad man, then the work of Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington is the soul of the emotions. Director Neil LaBute wants the audience to be them and Wilson and Washington not only does that but makes us love these two people who cannot be more perfect to each other through the unstressed smiles and slanted concerns. The reason “Lakeview Terrace” becomes the fear and the social pain Jackson brings in is due to these two performances.

Abel while a pure prick can be empathized as a single father and a hard working policeman coming from racial toughness and tolerance for all these years. But he steps up to twisted and scheming methods to make his neighbour’s life a misery. That demarcates him into something else. The way it ends might not comfort but that is the intention. Because in this mixed emotion of his cruel tendencies and care for his kids, we are lost on the agony of unable to educate this man on friendly co-existence. It is even more unsettling when he knows what his problem is and yet he keeps on doing what he did.