Lakeview Terrace

Lakeview Terrace tells the story of an interracial couple who moves in next door to a police officer. It soon becomes clear that they are unwanted, and that Officer Abel Turner will do anything to drive them out.

When I saw the trailer it seemed that Lakeview Terrace had the potential to be an at least "OK" movie.

Just a few minutes into the film I was quickly made aware that I was wrong.

The writing and directing of this film were terrible.

None of the characters were believable, or well developed, and the dialogue was down-right painful at times. It felt as if the film was shot and produced out of the first-draft of the story. 

It wasn't perfected. It didn't even give the feeling that the writers cared for it or really tried.

The plot lacked so much depth and substance it actually hurt me to think about it; because this story did have potential. The writer's could have escalated things much smoother and much more violent. I never felt that this couple was really being terrorized from their home. 

They tried to use a forest fire as a symbol for how the conflict between the two neighbors went from contained, to out of control... But failed miserably. They didn't connect the two in a sufficient enough way to spark the audience's attention. All I could think of was: "Who cares about the fire?"

There were too many mediocre arguments, too many drawn out scenes that would have been most effective if short, and a too poor of an attempt to connect the audience with the story behind Turner's past.

The story itself may not have been enough for a full-length movie, but it could have had enough to be enjoyable: with the potential of earning at least three "stars" from its viewers.

But the production team seemed to give up and not put their best foot forward. They could have done so much more with the story than they did. It was very disappointing. 

What might be even worse than the writing, were the actors.

Samuel L. Jackson, who played Officer Abel Turner, did not impress me in the slightest. The dialogue didn't seem to fit him at all through the entire film. His character was much too flat for me to care about anything he did. 

You'd think the role of a terrorizing police officer would be fun to portray, but Jackson seemed to sluggishly move along in the role. If the actor can't show that he cares for the character, how can the audience feel anything differently?

I'm going to try to give Partick Wilson the benefit of the doubt, because he did fantastically in both Hard Candy and The Phantom of the Opera, so maybe his complete disaster-of-a-performance in Lakeview Terrace was the fault of a bad Director.

Wilson plays the role of Chris Mattson who moves into the house next door to Turner with his wife, Lisa (played by Kerry Washington). Wilson seemed to struggle with this role more than with his troublesome neighbor. Chris is supposed to be a white man who smokes and loves rap music.

I didn't believe him on either point. [[And since when is a mint and hand sanitizer enough to cover the smell of smoke?!]]

As the actions of his neighbor "escalated" he failed to show me that he was growing increasingly angry or frustrated. He reminded me more of a child pouting in his corner than a grown man fighting against a "terrifying" neighbor.

Kerry Washington, who is well known for her role in Fantastic Four as Alicia, did little to improve on the rest of the film.

She seemed much too casual throughout the entire film. It always seemed she was talking to a friend of hers, even when she was supposed to be angry. She just didn't convince me to be a woman tormented by her neighbor and her struggling marriage.

It was a shame because I expected more from her.

Overall this movie was not ready to be made. It desperately needed to go through two or more drafts before reaching a final script, let alone the big screen. I wasn't expecting this movie to be fantastic, but I didn't expect it to be such a disaster either.

((Barely)) 1 out of 5 stars.