Lakeview Terrace’ brings surprising thrills to audience
Wesley Colvin
Plot:
When recently married Chris and Lisa Mattson (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington), an interracial couple, move into a gated community next door to decorated LAPD officer, Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson), they become targets of his aggressive and increasingly paranoid view of their relationship. Review:
Samuel L. Jackson’s portrayal of a Abel Turner, a seemingly friendly and welcoming neighbor, could be considered Oscar worthy right off the bat.
As the plot unfolds, pieces of his true nature comes out in scenes of Abel’s day job in the LAPD as he roughs up suicidal crack heads and makes under-the-table deals with the local gang leaders and drug dealers.
Jackson brings Abel’s personality home perfectly as he implements increasingly severe and intrusive restrictions on Chris and Lisa as well as his own two children Celia and Marcus (Regine Nehy and Jaishon Fisher).
While Chris and Lisa are trying to make peace with their neighbor, he comes up with creative, and occasionally illegal, ways to break up their marriage or drive them out of the neighborhood.
Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington sucessfully portray the stressed out new couple in the neighborhood with thoughts of expanding the family, unexpressed concerns about an interracial marriage, and the increasing hostility of their neighbor.
The movies biggest flaw is its lack of any real supporting characters. The audience meets Lisa’s father twice, briefly, and Chris’s family is completely absent from the story, so Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington, and Samuel Jackson essentially carry the story on their backs.
Grade: A-
