TNLF: Lakeview Terrace (63%)

What could be safer than living next to a cop?

Lakeview Terrace is an interesting film from director Neil Labute. Having started off writing and directing independent character studies Labute inched towards more mainstream fair with Nurse Betty and Possession. By choosing to direct the much maligned The Wicker Man he remained on the fence between independent and mainstream (after all, The Wicker Man was a remake of an obscure cult classic). But with Lakeview Terrace Labute seems to be only inches away from becoming completely Hollywood.

I say inches away because even though Lakeview Terrace is a very traditional Hollywood film, in many ways there are touches that are rather risqué for mainstream filmmaking. Samuel L. Jackson plays a police officer who is a little on the psycho side. When an interracial couple move next door he disapproves and starts to make their lives miserable to get them out.

Jackson is superb in this movie. At times he seems so cool, at other times sad and at other times seriously menacing. He steals the picture (as he does so many times) from everybody else and makes the viewer unable to turn away. Kerry Washington and Patrick Wilson, as the couple next door, are pretty good too but this movie BELONGS to Jackson and no one else.

Now what makes this movie risqué, and takes it a notch or two away from hollywood is that it is Jackson who is the racist. He is the one who doesn't like white people and that is something I have never seen Hollywood fully embrace. Usually (always) it is the other way around. This situation leads to interesting, different and original scenes that play out throughout the movie.

The only problem is that this cat and mouse game that Jackson plays with his neighbours only goes so far and by movies end it becomes predictable and unoriginal. The first hour and a bit of Lakeview Terrace is tense and exciting and keeps the audience guessing at what will happen next. Although the story isn't to original, the reverse angle on racism and the powerhouse performance of Jackson make for a very watchable film.

It is only once the last half hour rolls around that the movie becomes, derivative, unoriginal and very Hollywood. It becomes Training Day or any other of the countless films out there that touch upon the same plot points. The ending becomes easy to guess and lowers the quality of the film significantly but even still Jackson keeps you watching.

Labute didn't have a hand in the writing (like on Nurse Betty) but the characters in this film are very much in line with what he usually writes. Jackson is like an extreme version of Aaron Eckhart's character in In the Company of Men. Wilson and Washington are like comedy-less versions of characters from Your Friends and Neighbors, hiding things from one another and lying. It is easy to see why he decided to make this film.

Lakeview Terrace is not an amazing film but it is captivating, entertaining and rather tense for the most part. It gets hampered by the ending and ultimately will not be as memorable as it could of been because of said ending. It is better than Labute's last effort though but doesn't come close to his earlier work. It's a shame that as Labute inches closer and closer to Hollywood he seems to be losing touch of what had made him so promising.


Film Rating: 63%

Breakdown (How Lakeview Terrace scored 63%):

Production Design: 6 out of 10
Cinematography: 7 out of 10
Re-playability: 5 out of 10
Originality: 6 out of 10
Costumes:  6 out of 10
Directing: 7 out of 10
Editing: 7 out of 10
Acting: 7 out of 10
Music: 6 out of 10
Script: 6 out of 10