Lakeview Terrace

For the Los Angeles neighborhood, see Lake View Terrace, Los Angeles, California.

Lakeview Terrace
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Neil LaBute
Screenplay by	David Loughery Howard Korder
Story by	David Loughery
Produced by	James Lassiter Will Smith
Starring	Samuel L. Jackson Patrick Wilson Kerry Washington
Cinematography	Rogier Stoffers
Edited by	Joel Plotch
Music by	Jeff Danna Mychael Danna
Production company	Overbrook Entertainment
Distributed by	Screen Gems
Release date	September 19, 2008 (2008-09-19)
Country	Template:Film US
Language	English
Budget	$20 million
Box office	$44,653,637

Lakeview Terrace is a 2008 American thriller film directed by Neil LaBute, co-produced by Will Smith, written by David Loughery and Howard Korder, and starring Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Wilson, and Kerry Washington. Jackson plays a racist, twenty-eight year veteran of the LAPD who terrorizes his new next-door neighbors because they are an interracially married couple. The film was released on September 19, 2008.

Plot

The movie opens on a family breakfast in a large suburban home in the hills of Los Angeles County. Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson) is a veteran L.A.P.D. officer and a virulent racist with a short temper, he is also a single father of two children, Marcus (Jaishon Fisher) and Celia (Regine Nehy). As his kids go to school the new neighbors are moving in. It turns out that the new homeowners are a young interracial couple, Chris and Lisa Mattson (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington), who are recently married and buying their first home.

Chris’s first exchanges with Turner have somewhat hostile undertones, with Abel making comments on Chris’s smoking and listening to hip hop music. The following night, Chris and Lisa have sex in their swimming pool. Unbeknownst to them, Abel's children are watching. Abel arrives home to see this spectacle, and is upset. He installs home security floodlights, and they shine into Chris and Lisa's window, keeping them awake and irritating them. When Chris has the opportunity to discuss this, Abel claims that the lights are to prevent crime and says that he will shut them down, but constantly claims that he is delayed.

Abel attends a housewarming party hosted by Chris and Lisa. He is garrulous but has an edge, and criticizes Chris and his friends for their liberal political and social tendencies, on things ranging from the environment to police brutality. As he leaves, Chris tells Abel that he is starting to take offense to him, but does not plan to move. One evening, they hear noises downstairs, and find the tires of Chris' car slashed. They suspect Abel. They call the police to come, but are able to do little.

Chris and Lisa have dinner with Lisa's father, who tells them they could choose to move away, if they wish, because acrimony with a police officer may mean trouble for them. Their conversation eventually leads into a heated exchange between Chris and his father-in-law, indicating problems between the two since he got engaged to Lisa.

As the feud between the neighbors continues it also causes problems between Chris and Lisa. The situation is leaving them stressed and they can’t decide on when they want to have children. Chris now buys his own floodlights, and shines them into Abel's bedroom, as a way of taking matters into his own hands. Lisa soon reveals that she is pregnant. This brings a rift into their marriage. Chris does not want to have children yet. Lisa skipped birth control pills to force the issue. She thinks Chris is being shortsighted, and he leaves for work angry.

Chris and Abel continue their feud with Abel hosting a loud bachelor party while the kids are away with their aunt, with some of his cop buddies. Chris installs plants at the fence between their houses, which leads to an almost violent exchange between the two neighbors. Later Chris goes to a local bar, and as he finishes his drink, Abel enters and tells Chris that he lost his own wife, when a car hit her on a highway. Abel makes a last cryptic comment about his wife, wondering what she was doing out in that area, at that time with her white boss, when she was supposed to be working (implying she was being unfaithful to him).

Wildfires rage in the hills surrounding the community. The neighbors attend a barbecue in a home down the hill. Abel's informant Clarence Darlington (Keith Loneker) is sent to trash their home. Lisa goes home early surprising him and they struggle, which leads to her falling on her head. Chris races home when he hears his burglar alarm go off with a frustrated Abel following him. Chris rushes to the injured Lisa, and Abel comes upon his hired criminal trying to escape and shoots him twice in the chest and once in the back, killing him.

The wildfires are not contained and the neighborhood is instructed to pack a few things and leave their homes. Abel watches from his home nearby. He is hosing off his roof and does not want to leave. He enters the Mattsons' home, hoping to retrieve Clarence's cell phone because he is afraid his call to the perpetrator could be traced, implicating him in the break-in. Before he can find it, Lisa and Chris unexpectedly return from the hospital and Abel returns to his home. Chris thanks Abel for helping him, tries to express a sense of community with Abel. When Chris and Lisa are packing to leave, Chris discovers the cell phone under their bed, and picks it up. He dials the last number logged on the phone and hears Abel answer. Chris realizes Abel is responsible for the break-in. Abel comes over with his gun drawn, trying to convince him that the perpetrator was a police enemy and was trying to set Abel up. He and Chris struggle and Chris tells Lisa to take the car and perp's phone and get the police. Abel shoots Lisa's car and she crashes into a parked car. Chris tackles Abel and gets his gun, then runs to help Lisa out of the car. This leads to a standoff, with Chris holding Abel's gun and Abel now holding a second gun from his leg holster.

The police arrive, and Abel hides his gun behind his back and tries to convince them Chris is unbalanced. Chris won't drop his weapon until Abel puts his down and Abel insists that he is unarmed. Chris finally throws Abel off, by asking about his wife's death and how he was not able to recognize that she had become unfaithful to him. Infuriated, Abel shoots Chris, but is then gunned down(fatally) by his fellow police officers on the scene. Chris is taken to an ambulance with a gunshot wound to the chest, but is told he will live. He and Lisa later talk about their pride in their home, neighborhood, and soon-to-be family.

Cast

• Samuel L. Jackson as Abel Turner
• Patrick Wilson as Chris Mattson
• Kerry Washington as Lisa Mattson
• Jaishon Fisher as Marcus Turner
• Regine Nehy as Celia Turner
• Jay Hernandez as Javier Villareal
• Keith Loneker as Clarence Darlington
• Ron Glass as Harold Perreau
• Caleeb Pinkett as Damon Richards
• Justin Chambers as Donnie Eaton
• Juan Diaz as Steele
• Lynn Chen as Eden

Filming locations

The majority of the movie was filmed in Walnut, California on N Deer Creek Dr. Film production can be viewed on Google's Street View. The scene where Abel Turner comes out of the police station to talk to his partner and other police officers, was filmed in Hawthorne, California on the corner of Grevillea Ave. & 126th St.

Reception

Critical reaction to Lakeview Terrace has been mixed. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 48% of critics gave positive reviews based on 147 reviews. On Metacritic, critics gave a 46% approval rating based on 28 reviews. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a very positive review, awarding it his highest rating of four stars (out of four) and saying: "Some will find it exciting. Some will find it an opportunity for an examination of conscience. Some will leave feeling vaguely uneasy. Some won't like it and will be absolutely sure why they don't, but their reasons will not agree. Some will hate elements that others can't even see. Some will only see a thriller. I find movies like this alive and provoking, and I'm exhilarated to have my thinking challenged at every step of the way."

Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle also enjoyed the film, saying: "In its overall shape and message, Lakeview Terrace is a conventional suspense thriller, but the details kick it up a notch. ... The fun of Lakeview Terrace is not in what happens but in how it happens." J.R. Jones of the Chicago Reader called the film "one of the toughest racial dramas to come out of Hollywood since the fires died down—much tougher, for instance, than Paul Haggis's hand-wringing Oscar winner Crash."

Dennis Harvey of Variety said that Lakeview Terrace "delivers fairly tense and engrossing drama" but "succumb[s] to thriller convention." Anthony Lane of The New Yorker said that "the first hour of the film ... feels dangerous, necessary, and rife with comic disturbance," but added that "the later stages ... overheat and spill into silliness." James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film two stars out of four, saying that "the first two-thirds of Lakeview Terrace offer a little more subtlety and complexity than the seemingly straightforward premise would afford, but the climax is loud, dumb, generic, and over-the-top."

Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe said that "the movie might have something to say about black racism, but the conversations go nowhere, and the clichés of the genre take over." Sura Wood of The Hollywood Reporter said: "[The idea of] a black actor cast as the virulent bigot, with the object of his campaign of harassment the young interracial couple who move in next door, could be viewed as a novel twist. But the film, absent a sense of place and populated by repellent or weak characters, soon devolves into an increasingly foul litany of events." Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal gave it one half of a star out of five, and called the film a "joyless and airless suspense thriller."

On its opening weekend, the film grossed $15 million placing it at number one in the United States. The film grossed $39.2 million in the United States and Canada and $3.2 million in other territories, making $42.4 million worldwide.

DVD sales

Lakeview Terrace was released on January 27, 2009 and sold 1,194,420 units. It raised $20,119,729, slightly more than the film's budget.

External links

• Official website
• Lakeview Terrace at IMDb
• ‹The template AllMovie title is being considered for deletion.› Lakeview Terrace at AllMovie
• Lakeview Terrace at Rotten Tomatoes
• Lakeview Terrace at Box Office Mojo
• Lakeview Terrace debuts in top spot at box office CNN