Lakeview Terrace: Law and Racial Disorder

This is a great movie to touch on interracial relationships and racism in general. Where most go for dramatic or philosophical, an overarching comment on society, Lakeview Terrace is instead humanizing. It is not evil, but people who have been damaged damaging in turn.

Chris and Lisa (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington) play a young interracial couple who have just moved into their first home: prime-valued L.A. property. Their next-door neighbor, Abel Turner (wonderfully played by Samuel L. Jackson), doesn't approve of their relationship. He makes life difficult while still appearing to have good-intentions. Both bad intentions and the appearance of good intentions are complicated by the fact he's a police officer. He's a watchdog for the neighborhood.

Think for a moment. He is a black man approaching an interracial couple with a white male. How would this be different if the races were switched with the men? If it was a white man that had the problem, or if the two men were the same race? Well?

It's thoughts of why the situation is complicated that propel half the story. Many people people can bite their tongues and not mention races when they see the couple, but when Chris and Lisa go to her wealthy attorney-father, he asks Chris up front "how do you plan to protect my daughter?" There is no right answer to this, and it already implies Chris is not fit to. He also asks if they plan on having kids, but doesn't sound eager. Chris isn't eager either, but Lisa is.

Every aspect of their relationship is complicated by race, an issue they can't hide because Abel Turner will find a way to hurt them, either physically or emotionally. How many ways can you harm a couple? I am surprised with the number of angles the script allows him to go at them from. But he's not an element of society or a random black officer: he is Abel Turner, a strict father and widower. He loves his job and works hard to get along with his fellow officers. I feel he intends for the best in his watchdog duties, no matter how forceful he is.

The film includes two uses of the F-word, an attempted rape (not by Chris or Abel), and very tense including one with a neighbor yeilding a chainsaw. I honestly don't know how to categorize this movie. At times, it was horror, in manipulation if nothing else. Other times, it was a drama between an interracial couple, or a thriller about an ill-intending neighbor-cop. It isn't about any one of these, but the three together. The subjects can't be separated, as the script does a great job blending them.

I do have a question for the readers. In the end, was Chris justified? I do mean the very end. Or did he just press Abel's buttons the same way his buttons were pressed? Knowing Abel's reaction, is he justified?

Is it entertaining? Very, but it needs a careful eye to understand every aspect of the horror.

Is it marketable? Yes. And not offensive.

Is it memorable? Yes. The human approach separates, and while the characters or acting might not be top-line, the way the issues are set is.