A man prone to suspect evil...is looking in his neighbor...for what he-sees in himself.
A tip of my hat to Augustus Hare, an English writer who penned this quote. It felt like an apt tribute that summarizes the precept of Lakeview Terrace. A film that with a decent concept squandered away on shortcuts and exaggeration. Lakeview Terrace as a basic plot concept, could be a credible story. The underlying principles within the film work for me. However, the delivery suffers from a tendency to go overboard with the writing. The characters were interesting and quirky, which I like, but taking those traits to the extremes cost the film credibility.
Abel Turner (Samuel L Jackson) is a strict father. He is the type that corrects grammar and has a rule for everything. He is also an off-balance Los Angeles Police Officer who has amassed a record of complaints. His renegade style is beyond "loose cannon." He is a danger to his partner and the community. Aggressive policing aside, Turner also has unresolved racial issues to deal with stemming from his own personal experiences. His own past seems to manifest itself in the way he deals with people around him. This includes his new neighbors.
Chris (Patrick Wilson) and Lisa Mattson (Kerry Washington) are Turners new neighbors. They have purchased their new house in the suburbs just before the California wildfires decide to spread in that direction, providing an interesting backdrop. The growing intensity between the Mattson's and Turner seems to be mirrored in the approaching inferno. The newlyweds are dealing with their own issues and find additional conflict with Turner's apparent vengeance. The fire, the personal conflict and other sub-plots converge in a dramatic climax of fiery confrontation.
Lakeview Terrace had some decent dialogue. The Mattson's are a mixed-race couple dealing with a racist neighbor who is black. This causes confusion when Lisa's father describes their problem as being color-based. When he clarifies that their problem is "blue," his statement makes sense. There were a few nuggets of good dialogue thrown into a basic Hollywood formula film complete with banal exchanges. The writing tried to be good but erred on the side of excess. Rich, eccentric characters are normally appealing to me, but when you make their actions inconsistent or stretch their credibility past a certain point, I lose interest. That was where the writing failed in this film. There are limitations on what you can sell as believable and Lakeview Terrace exceeds those limits.
I enjoy Samuel L. Jackson and consider him among the Hollywood elite. But he has made several films I thought were horrible. But for every bad film, he seems to have two Black Snake Moan's. He owes me two good films for suffering through this one. He wasn't bad, but the role was. If anyone could have sold the part, it is Jackson...but I remained unsold. Wilson wasn't all that credible, either. I liked him and found his character slightly engaging, but never really connected fully to the role. I really didn't like Washington at all. I think she was miscast in this role. The acting was average in a below average film.
Lakeview Terrace contains a bit of mature subject matter. This includes what appears to be a potential rape scene, a swimming pool sex scene and plenty of violence and gun-play. The goriest of the violence is a shooting involving the swimming pool which was bloody but not overly graphic aside from that. There are some tense scenes that don't result in actual violence (but teeter on it) which might also scare younger viewers. I find the MPAA rating of PG-13 to be pretty accurate. The film has a run time of one hour, fifty minutes.
I wanted to like Lakeview Terrace. I wanted to like it for Jackson. I wanted to like it for the excellent concept. I wanted to like it because I invested nearly two hours in watching it. I didn't like it because it was too Hollywood. It was formulaic, over-the-top and predictable. All of these factors could have been avoided with just a little bit of creativity. There were sparks of light in the dialogue and just some minor scaling back of the characters might have made a big difference to me. But as it is, I would not recommend this formulaic Hollywood drivel. 4/10.
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