Not feeling very neighbourly

Lakeview Terrace

Certification: PG

Cast: Samuel L Jackson, Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington, Jay Hernandez, Regine Nehy, Jaishon Fisher, Ron Glass

Director: Neil LaBute

Genre: Drama, Thriller

USUALLY, movies with Samuel L Jackson at the forefront can very easily be a hit-or-miss affair.

Take for instance his movies in the past three years, from 'Snakes On A Plane' to 'Jumper' and this year's 'The Spirit'; basically, critics did not care too much for them at all.

Now 'Lakeview Terrace', released end of 2008, sees L Jackson as the lead actor, and there has been a sea of mixed reviews.

Samuel L Jackson plays Abel Turner, a widower raising two preadolescent children, Celia (Regine Nehy) and Marcus (Jaishon Fisher). He's tough on his kids as he tries to teach them principles and values in a world that he still sees as racially imbalanced.

So when a couple, Chris and Lisa Mattson (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington), moves in to the next house, and in the eyes of Abel, flaunts their interracial relationship; he subtly becomes hostile even when they tries to be neighbourly.

Abel's insinuations and unending intrusions gradually become clear that he wants the Mattsons out of the neighbourhood. Even when Chris and Lisa suspect that it was Abel who slashed their car tyres, they find that reporting the incident to the local police is futile as Abel appears to have their trust.

Toleration becomes too much for the young couple to handle as the harassment begins to escalate. And with an unstoppable wildfire that's edging ever closer to the residential enclave, tension starts to exacerbate even between the husband and wife. At the helm of this Will Smith-produced project is Neil LaBute, who usually writes his own screenplays.

Even though the theme of this movie seems like one that is right in LaBute's ballpark, surprisingly he is not credited as a writer for the script and this marks his first directorial movie that he did not pen. Rather, David Loughery and Howard Korder step in for writing credits.

The story builds up very, very slowly. Too slowly, in fact, that there are sighs of relief when the culmination is finally reached. LaBute really takes his time building up the characters, which is a plus; but the downside is that these tiny steps in progression may not be able to keep the audience's attention.

Furthermore, the trailer has clearly showed what this movie is all about but the producers decided to use up more than an hour to show the tension build-ups which clearly is unnecessary.

The main focus here is on Jackson. There are moments of brilliance in his acting when the glee creeps out slowly from inside of him as he orchestrates and watches his neighbour's predicaments. But then there are also moments of ridicule, like when his eyes are overacting with exaggerated popping and narrowing. This is another Samuel L Jackson movie that's more than likely to be forgotten by next month.

Reviewer's Rating: 4 / 10

The Brunei Times