CAN’T we all just get along? Not really, says “Lakeview Ter race,” in which racial frustration throbs like a busted toe even in a suburban LA neighborhood.
Soon after an interracial couple, Chris and Lisa (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington), move in next door to a black cop, Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson), things get touchy. Like, 1965 Watts touchy.
Abel’s floodlights blast through their windows, and he’s dismissive when asked if he could turn down the wattage. The couple’s car suffers a mysterious attack, as does their air conditioner. In LA this counts as a double amputation.
It turns out Abel is angry because the couple, in their swimming pool, went at it like two contestants in “The Bachelor” in full view of his kids. Nor does he appreciate Chris flicking his cigarette butts into his yard.
The movie is basically told from a white point of view, but, for its first two-thirds at least, it avoids most traps. It doesn’t cop out with a white-liberal-guilt message about the dangers of mistrusting your neighbor (Abel really is hostile) but doesn’t demonize anyone, either.
Abel, whose wife is dead, has good reason to be on edge. (Also, Chris went to Berkeley on a lacrosse scholarship, and if that isn’t just cause for a campaign of psychological torture, I don’t know what is.) Abel is technically within his rights to, for instance, lop off tree branches that cross into his property. At times Chris does the same thing to the olive branches that Abel extends the other way. Despite being the audience surrogate, Chris is kind of a jerk.
Director Neil LaBute (who didn’t write the picture) delights in upending liberal pieties in his stage plays, and he bakes up unease and suspense while dramatizing difficult questions. Is it racism, or pride, that makes a black person wish other blacks would date within the race? (If it is racism, what about when Jews take a similar stance?) Is it wrong of Chris to see a connection between Abel’s behavior and the chilly reception he gets from his father-in-law? Is Abel just an angry lout, or a racist, and does it make a difference?
“Lakeview Terrace” holds your interest, though the bad faith on all sides makes it something of an endurance test. What’s more unfortunate is a turn for the literal (shades of “Do the Right Thing”) when wildfires threaten to burn down both houses. The third act isn’t altogether implausible, but it seems borrowed from a lesser thriller. When one character goes too far, it becomes too easy for the audience to choose a side.
LAKEVIEW TERRACE
Hate thy neighbor.
Running time: 106 minutes. Rated PG-13 (Violence, sexuality, profanity, drug references). At the E-Walk, the Orpheum, the Magic Johnson, others.