Review of Lakeview Terrace (2008) by Brian B — 26 Oct 2015

At the time this film came out (the summer before Obama was elected President south of the 49th parallel) I viewed it as an throwback to the Intimacy Thrillers that flooded the movie theaters in the Bush/Clinton era following the success of Fatal Attraction.

Actually it comes across as a more mean-spirited and more realistic variation on the Paul Haggis film Crash. Samuel L. Jackson is superb as a veteran LAPD officer. A widower, he has definite ideas on how to raise his kids.

As a cop, he has definite ideas on how to police the worst neighborhoods in his city. But when an interracial couple moves in next door, we discover that Jackson's character has definite ideas about race relations and is actually a racist.

Jackson's character is charming and helpful but he gradually reveals his resentment of his young neighbors (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington) and tries to drive them out of the exclusive neighborhood they live in.

He becomes more unhinged and angrier as the movie progresses. After he is suspended by the LAPD pending an IAD investigation into his actions during a violent take-down of a suspect (in which point the IAD investigator's suggest that he retire) he makes Wilson and Washington the outlet for all his frustrations.

Wilson and Washington as also good as the young newlyweds. Wilson is very good, polite, middle class, and liberal and finds his beliefs and world shaken by Jackson's relentless crusade. Washington displays a great deal of inner courage and strength as the film progresses, and remains unshakable in her convictions even as a wildfire threatens their home as much as Jackson's character.

Also featuring Ron Glass as Washington's very successful father who resents his new son-in-law for both racial and class reasons.