Neil LaBute has kept a low profile since unleashing the unintentionally hilarious Wicker Man into the world in 2006.
Lakeview Terrace marks his first appearance in the director’s chair since that debacle and though the results are better—how could they not be—LaBute still has a tall order in restoring the credibility he built up in the ‘90s.
Patrick Wilson (Hard Candy) and Kerry Washington (The Last King of Scotland) play an interracial couple who buy their first home in a posh Los Angeles suburb. Samuel L. Jackson is Abel Turner, their strict widower neighbor who objects to such a relationship.
Tensions rise as Abel, an LAPD officer, perpetrates a series of mind games against the couple.
The caveat with movies that have racial issues at their core is it invites lazy filmmaking.
Racial conflict is such a touchy subject that it’s easy to throw together a basic premise, include a racial element, and expect quality results to trickle down.
When filmmakers avoid this entrapment, you get films such as Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (which also featured Jackson) and Tony Kaye’s American History X. When they don’t, you get Lakeview Terrace.
David Loughery and Howard Korder, who can share equal blame in collaborating on the script, don’t bother to attach much depth to the characters or scenarios.
Despite lots of physical contact, Wilson and Washington’s chemistry is so unnatural that you start to ask, “Why are they together?”
Early confrontations between Wilson and Jackson make for unsettling moments, but as per the usual with uninspired movies, the promise of those scenes are never fully realized.
The issues examined in Do the Right Thing still divide audiences as much today as it did after the film’s 1989 release. Lee took the time to develop the neighborhood setting and its inhabitants into complex entities. Motives and actions aren’t cut and dry, which leads to a shocking conclusion without a clear antagonist.
The minds behind Lakeview Terrace don’t seem interested in such shades of grey. What little character development Jackson’s character gets feels tacked on, and even then, he at no point comes across as a sympathetic character.
It’s difficult to knock Jackson, who once again exhibits his ability to take shoddy material and deliver, at worst, an admirable performance. The energy he brings to most of his roles makes his resume scattered with clunkers forgivable. It’s that intensity that’s converted some of those flicks into cult classics (Snakes on a Plane, anyone?).
But no amount of that classic Samuel L. Jackson bravado can mask that Lakeview Terrace is a generic thriller posing as a relevant piece of social commentary.
** out of *****
1 comment:
Though your review sounds believably accurate, I can't ever consciously avoid Samuel Jackson's charisma and Kerry Washington's aesthetic perfection. Still, good review.
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