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With no snakes on the plane or Sith Lords to subdue, Samuel L. Jackson gets a chance to unleash his inner psychopath in Lakeview Terrace, and it's a barnstorming performance, showing exactly what he's capable of when given the right material. It is probably his best turn since coming to mainstream attention in Pulp Fiction all those years ago, for which he received his only Oscar nomination. His second would not be remiss, although it is unlikely, for his performance as racist cop/neighbour from hell Abel Turner in Lakeview Terrace, a suburban LA thriller that smoulders with racial tension. And that's not the only thing smouldering, with a backdrop of wild fires that gradually begin to encircle the neighbourhood, sending massive plumes of black smoke into the air. As in Spike Lee's seminal 1989 "joint" Do the Right Thing, the suffocating heat is an obvious metaphor for the simmering racial undercurrents at play.
What has ruffled Abel's feathers is a young couple moving into the vacant house next door (it's one of those typical American first homes: three bedrooms, a triple garage, and an Olympic-sized swimming pool). To his horror, they are an interracial couple, played by Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington, which upsets his extreme values, so he embarks upon a devious reign of terror to make their lives intolerable. (He's more Cain than Abel, in other words.) Director Neil LaBute - regaining some credibility after the botched Wicker Man remake - cranks up the intensity superbly at a precisely gauged rate, aided, of course, by Jackson and a well-written script. LaBute adds extra intrigue and variety by taking us along on some of Abel's house calls when doing his day job as an LAPD officer, which serve to enhance his character by contributing extra shades of grey. Indeed, it eventually surfaces that there is a reason for Jackson's bigotry which in some ways gives him an understandable motive, even if he does take his anger too far. There's a level of ambiguity that separates Lakeview Terrace from usual black-and-white (so to speak) Hollywood morality.
Though only hinted at in glimpsed TV news reports and the like for much of the film, the brush fires emerge as an inspired dramatic tool once the finale approaches. The fires come within touching distance of the neighbourhood just as Abel's vicious game reaches boiling point, which only enhances the atmosphere and suspense. Unfortunately, in thrillers such as these the climax rarely matches the quality of the set-up, and that is the case here, thanks to the decision to fall back on a typical clunky plot device and have one of the main characters do something exceedingly stupid. That it manages not to be a dealbreaker is down to the considered direction and excellent acting, which ensures that although melodrama seeps in, absurdity does not. It is a questionable decision to wrap everything up in a tidy little bow at the end but it's not exactly a surprise, and the outcome fails to dent the standard of the film as a whole.
The summary
An engrossing can't-look-away thriller with one of this year's best bad guys. (You can figure out the number 1 on that list.)
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