Lakeview Terrace, directed by Neil LaBute
Lakeview Terrace is a highly effective thriller in the “new neighbourhood nightmare” genre, or perhaps just the “neighbour from hell” genre, like John Schlesinger’s Pacific Heights. Chris and Lisa Mattson move into their first house in a Californian suburb, next to the stern cop and self-appointed local watchman, Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson). Turner disapproves of their interracial marriage and of their smallest moral lapses and insists on training his harsh light on the Mattsons, depriving them of comfort however he can, and readily and skilfully abusing the power his job gives him. Before long the Mattsons find themselves unwillingly at war, a war that follows Turner’s mad logic to a terrible conclusion.
It’s not the most original story, perhaps, but it is very well told by writer David Loughery and director Neil LaBute. LaBute’s direction doesn’t draw attention to itself visually, but his work with the actors and Loughery’s script get their reward, with strong performances, not just from Samuel L. Jackson and Kerry Washington as Lisa, but especially I thought from Patrick Wilson as Chris, the former frat boy and graduate manager faced for the first time with responsibility and tired and bemused by the hostile Turner.
There are flaws: Turner's children are blatantly abandoned to an aunt when they outlive their narrative purpose, and I found Chris's behaviour at the bachelor party hard to credit: his anger would surely have prevented his being drawn into enjoying the dancers' antics. This was an instance I think of Loughery and LaBute allowing cynicism about the make state to outweigh emotional credibility. It wasn't worth it, either, because what they do dramatically with the resulting DVD is so subtle as to be imperceptible. I wasn't entirely happy with the repeated contact between Chris and Abel generally, in fact - it seemed to me unlikely - but perhaps we can forgive that as necessary for the narrative. And the symbol of approaching fire seemed to me too obvious. I want to say a word about the use of violence in Lakeview Terrace, though, too: there is violence, and killing, but both are I think presented sensibly and to some purpose, without ludicrous inflation. Guns are rightly shown as terrifying, and their threatened use the ultimate horror.
Some will see racial tension and hang-ups as a major theme of Lakeview Terrace, but that seems to me less important than its study of masculinity in crisis and especially of mental illness: we not only fear Turner, but come to understand and believe, too, how he became the monster he is. The scenes showing him at work serve the plot, but also make us see what life on the front line can do to a man who, we are shown, has a serious moral sense, now warped. Lakeview Terrace is also a frightening warning about the dangerous machismo of police culture and the potential for abuse of the social power status as a policeman gives. Crucially, at the end, the approaching fires bring officers from the County Sheriff's Department to Lakeview Circle, rather than the LAPD officers who know Turner and whose loyalty to the badge means loyalty to colleague rather than to the public.
Have your say - join the discussion