Spring Break
'Lakeview Terrace' plot predictable
Brad York/Staff Reporter
Issue date: 9/26/08 Section: The Verge
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The racial fuse is lit and the bomb is set to explode in the new dramatic thriller, "Lakeview Terrace."
Samuel L. Jackson stars as the stubborn Abel Turner, a neighborhood cop planning to ruin the lives of his new interracially married neighbors.
Jackson doesn't have to stretch far for his role. It seems that playing a prick comes natural to the veteran actor.
From the first time you see the couple kiss, played by Patrick Wilson (Little Children, Hard Candy) and Kerry Washington (Ray, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer), Turner is troubled by the thought of a white man being married to a black woman.
Jackson brings an overacting aspect to all the roles that he has ever played and he doesn't disappoint in this film.
In fact, that is why moviegoers like Jackson as much as they do.
There are no surprises in the acting and instead, the director Neil LaBute uses a Los Angeles wildfire and racial motivations to fuel the inevitable end.
With the LAPD on Turner's side, the couple must sit back and accept the things that Turner throws at them.
If you watch this movie in hopes that the director will keep you guessing, "What could happen next," you will be thoroughly disappointed.
Although the movie brings you to search your soul for any racist thoughts, it lets you down in the melodramatic action sequences.
This film does leave you wondering, "What would I do in that situation?" If anything, "Lakeview Terrace" makes you sit back and examine your life and the times that you have thought in racist stereotypes.
The problem with this is that the movie offers no solution or even a change in character, which proves why these thoughts are ignorant and wrong.
"Lakeview Terrace" is a film that sets the tone of real life.
The characters are portrayed in a realistic fashion and the emotions that fuel the flame are ever so present in everyday life. Don't expect to play a guessing game in this film; simply expect a portrayal of reality that makes you introspectively examine your own reality.
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