Lakeview Terrace

''Lakeview Terrace'' is a 2008 American crime thriller film directed by Neil LaBute, written by David Loughery and Howard Korder, co-produced by James Lassiter and Will Smith, and starring Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington. Jackson plays a racist Black Los Angeles Police Department police officer who terrorizes his new next-door neighbors (Wilson and Washington) because they are an interracially married couple. The title is a reference to the ethnically mixed middle class Los Angeles neighborhood of Lake View Terrace.

The film was released on September 19, 2008, received mixed reviews and grossed $44 million.

Plot

Abel Turner is an African American LAPD officer living in the Lakeview Terrace neighborhood of Los Angeles. He becomes outraged when an interracial married couple, Chris and Lisa Mattson, move in next door, and begins antagonizing them by repositioning his home security floodlights to shine into their bedroom window at night and making underhanded racial remarks to Chris regarding his marriage. Later, Chris and Lisa have sex in their swimming pool, but unbeknownst to them, Abel's children, Marcus and Celia, are watching them. When Abel arrives home and witnesses the spectacle, he angrily refuses to take down his floodlights despite Chris' requests. Abel also begins to insinuate to Chris that he disapproves of his marriage and wants them to move out of the neighborhood.

One evening, Chris and Lisa hear noises downstairs and find the tires on Chris' car slashed. Suspecting Abel, they call the police, who cannot do anything because of Abel's status within the LAPD. Chris retaliates by shining his own floodlights into Abel's bedroom. Lisa later reveals she is pregnant, creating conflict with Chris, who does not yet want children. Meanwhile, Abel is suspended for abusing a suspect, inciting more fury within him. Abel continues harassing the couple by hosting a loud bachelor party with his colleagues where he forces Chris to be sexually harassed by a stripper. Chris later plants trees along the fence between their properties, which leads to a near-violent exchange, as Abel objects to having trees hanging over his property and cuts them down.

When Chris goes to a local bar, Abel enters and tells him that his own wife died in a traffic accident while alone with her white male employer, although she was supposed to be nursing an elderly Jewish patient, leading him to believe that she was being unfaithful. The tragedy and his suspicions left him with a hatred for whites and interracial relationships. Abel finally accuses Chris and all white men of trying to take whatever and whomever they want. Abel sends his informant, Clarence Darlington, to trash the Mattsons' home in another effort to scare them out, but Lisa arrives home early, surprising him. They struggle and Lisa is knocked unconscious, but not before she triggers the alarm. Chris races home, followed by Abel, who fatally shoots Clarence as he tries to flee the home. Lisa is rushed to the hospital but recovers.

Wildfires are raging in the surrounding hills, so the residents are instructed to leave their homes. Abel, who remains behind, surreptitiously enters the Mattsons', hoping to retrieve Clarence's cell phone, fearing that it will incriminate him. Lisa and Chris unexpectedly return home from the hospital before Abel finds it, and he quickly leaves. While the Mattsons pack to evacuate, Chris finds the cell, calling the last number dialled and Abel answers.

Realizing Chris knows he is responsible behind the break-in, Abel heads over with his gun drawn, and the men struggle. As Lisa tries to escape, Abel shoots her car, causing her to crash into a parked vehicle. After pistol-whipping Abel and seemingly knocking him unconscious, Chris tries to free Lisa from the car. Abel shoots at him but misses, and Chris holds Abel's other gun at him while telling him to stay back. Hiding his gun in the back of his pants, Abel claims he is unarmed when LASD deputy sheriffs arrive on the scene. The officers demand Chris drop his gun, and Abel to not move, uncertain of who the aggressor is. His wife begs him to comply and Abel tells him to listen to her. Remembering the corrupt cop's previous admission, Chris retorts that Abel should have listened to his wife and tauntingly implies his belligerent attitude drove her to cheat. Enraged at Chris' words, Abel is provoked into pulling out his backup revolver and shooting Chris in the shoulder. His true nature exposed, Abel is unceremoniously gunned down and killed by his former colleagues.

Chris survives the shooting, and in the ambulance, he and Lisa talk with pride about their home, neighborhood, and soon-to-be family, while the wildfires finally seem to be contained.

Cast

Production

Real life inspiration

The plot was loosely based on real life events in Altadena, California, involving an interracial couple, John and Mellaine Hamilton, and Irsie Henry, an African-American Los Angeles police officer. The saga was documented in a series of articles in both the '' Pasadena Star News'' and the ''Pasadena Weekly'' beginning in 2002. Journalist Andre Coleman received a Los Angeles' Press Club Award for Excellence in Journalism for his series of articles in the ''Weekly''. Henry was eventually fired by the LAPD for his actions.

Filming

The majority of the film was shot in Walnut, California, on North Deer Creek Drive. The scene where Abel Turner comes out of the police station to talk to his partner and other police officers was filmed in Hawthorne, California, on the corner of Grevillea Ave. & 126th St.

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 44% based on 167 reviews, with an average rating of 5.50/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "This thriller about a menacing cop wreaking havoc on his neighbors is tense enough but threatens absurdity when it enters into excessive potboiler territory." On Metacritic, the film has an average weighted score of 47 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert of the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' gave the film a very positive review, awarding it his highest rating of four stars and saying: "Some will find it exciting. Some will find it an opportunity for an examination of conscience. Some will leave feeling vaguely uneasy. Some won't like it and will be absolutely sure why they don't, but their reasons will not agree. Some will hate elements that others can't even see. Some will only see a thriller. I find movies like this alive and provoking, and I'm exhilarated to have my thinking challenged at every step of the way."

Mick LaSalle of the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' also enjoyed the film, saying: "In its overall shape and message, ''Lakeview Terrace'' is a conventional suspense thriller, but the details kick it up a notch. ... The fun of ''Lakeview Terrace'' is not in what happens but in how it happens." J.R. Jones of the ''Chicago Reader'' called the film "one of the toughest racial dramas to come out of Hollywood since the fires died down – much tougher, for instance, than Paul Haggis's hand-wringing Oscar winner '' Crash''."

Dennis Harvey of '' Variety'' said that ''Lakeview Terrace'' "delivers fairly tense and engrossing drama" but "succumb to thriller convention." Anthony Lane of ''The New Yorker'' said that "the first hour of the film ... feels dangerous, necessary, and rife with comic disturbance," but added that "the later stages ... overheat and spill into silliness." James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film two stars out of four, saying that "the first two-thirds of ''Lakeview Terrace'' offer a little more subtlety and complexity than the seemingly straightforward premise would afford, but the climax is loud, dumb, generic, and over-the-top."

Wesley Morris of ''The Boston Globe'' said that "the movie might have something to say about black racism, but the conversations go nowhere, and the clichés of the genre take over." Sura Wood of ''The Hollywood Reporter'' said: " he idea ofa black actor cast as the virulent bigot, with the object of his campaign of harassment the young interracial couple who move in next door, could be viewed as a novel twist. But the film, absent a sense of place and populated by repellent or weak characters, soon devolves into an increasingly foul litany of events." Joe Morgenstern of ''The Wall Street Journal'' gave it one half of a star out of five, and called the film a "joyless and airless suspense thriller."

Box office

In its opening weekend the film grossed $15 million, placing it at number one in the United States. The film went on to gross $39.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $3.2 million in other territories, for a total of $42.4 million worldwide.

See also

* List of films featuring home invasions

References

External links

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''Lakeview Terrace'' debuts in top spot at box office
''CNN''

"Pasadena Weekly - Copping Out"

"Pasadena Weekly - Extremely Disturbing Behavior"

{{Will Smith

2008 films
2008 crime thriller films
2008 psychological thriller films
American crime thriller films
American psychological thriller films
2000s English-language films
Films about the Los Angeles Police Department
Films about interracial romance
Films about race and ethnicity
Films directed by Neil LaBute
Films produced by Will Smith
Films scored by Jeff Danna
Films scored by Mychael Danna
Films set in Los Angeles
Films with screenplays by David Loughery
Films about home invasion
Overbrook Entertainment films
American police detective films
Screen Gems films
Films about racism in the United States
2000s American films
English-language crime thriller films