Lakeview Terrace is meant to be a domestic thriller that strikes fear in the hearts of homeowners everywhere. Instead, the film unintentionally strikes the funny bone, placing Samuel L. Jackson in a light all-too-reminiscent of his Snakes on a Plane absurdity.
Patrick Wilson (Running with Scissors) plays Chris Mattson, a first-time homeowner who just moved into a California neighborhood with his wife, Lisa (Kerry Washington, I Think I Love My Wife). Their next-door neighbor, Abel Turner (Jackson, Jumper), is a widower cop and strict father who lives with his two children.
The audience first becomes aware of Abel’s problem with the couple next door when he watches them kissing through his window. When Abel’s peering eyes narrow into Jackson’s trademark crazy gaze as he stares at Chris and Lisa, it’s overwhelmingly clear he is not OK with biracial couples. And it doesn’t take long for him to make it known.
On the Mattson’s first night in the neighborhood, Abel pretends to rob Chris while he sits in his parked car. Once Abel reveals he is just a neighbor, he tells Chris he was simply trying to teach him a lesson that would be useful in the sometimes dangerous area.
But later, more pointed experiences begin to make the couple think their neighbor isn’t so keen on acclimating them to the neighborhood. When Chris offers Abel help with repairing his car’s engine, Abel’s tool supposedly slips and slashes Chris’s hand. With a cavalier glance, Abel calmly tells Chris his gushing hand doesn’t look so bad and sends him away.
The apparent accidents just keep happening, and they get progressively more disturbing. A wire in the couple’s outdoor air conditioning unit mysteriously breaks loose during a sweltering heat wave and their car’s tires are slashed. All the while, Abel remains smug, simply peering over the hedges with a fake “What seems to be the trouble?” attitude that inspires the worst case of buyer’s remorse either of them has ever had.
The all-too-obvious parallel of the California brush fires creeping closer to the neighborhood while scarier incidents keep occurring feels incredibly heavy-handed. In the earliest scenes, we see the smoke rising in the distance. By the finale, the hills around the neighborhood are alive with the sound of fire engines fighting off flames.
All the while, Abel makes it more obvious he doesn’t approve of his new neighbors’ marriage. He casually tells Chris listening to rap music will never make him black. A few days later, during a conversation about the abusive relationship of a neighborhood couple, Abel very pointedly tells Chris he wishes he could just tell some people outright they shouldn’t be together.
Jackson certainly makes for an intimidating character – it’s sort of his racket. The only problem is, Terrace forces an explanation for his actions, courtesy of some unnecessary back story. The plot device undermines the intrigue, bringing Abel down to an exaggerated portrait of racism.
While individual characters in this wannabe domestic horror flick are enjoyable, such as Chris’s dry humor when dealing with Abel’s remarks is the only intentional humor in the film, the movie itself is so overdone that it’s impossible to swallow. Characters become more and more unbelievable as the film unravels – Abel especially.
The fiery background is basically the only frightening part about the so-called “climax,” when Abel finally goes off the deep end. With such a weak backstory aided by Jackson’s increasingly bad overacting, the character of Abel ends up so bluntly unrealistic, it becomes laughable. And what good is a thriller movie without a truly frightening villain? Not much good at all.
courtney.pomeroy@yahoo.com
RATING: 2 out of 5 stars
