Lakeview Terrace, Hilarious but VERY Serious

By Monica Peters Medina

Lakeview Terrace is Samuel L. Jackson’s lighter version of “Training Day.” (You’ll know what I mean when you go see the film tonight). What is supposed to be thriller is just flat out hilarious at times. There is something about Samuel L. Jackson playing “the angry man” that tickles me pink.

Jackson plays, Able Turner, a bitter widow and LAPD police officer who is now a single father. His bitterness stems from his wife’s death in a car accident. He discovers his deceased wife was having an affair with her boss (who happens to be Caucasian) that was also killed in the car accident. Of course, that part is not funny. However, what is funny is the extremely odd behavior exhibited by Jackson upon finding out that his new next door neighbors were a young interracial couple. Specifically what irritates Jackson is the fact the lovely young couple is a Black woman and White male, (played by Kerry Washington and Patrick Wilson) something that reminds him of his deceased wife’s betrayal. Jackson does weird things such as positioning his home security system lights to blare into the couple’s window just for purposes of being the perfect neighbor from hell.

Through various run- ins between the neighbors, which Wilson tries to often resolve amicably, he soon discovers that Jackson is not your average neighbor. Wilson and his wife slowly begin to realize that Jackson is a demented, crooked racist cop bent on terrorizing them until they move. Jackson’s antics escalated from annoying and petty to very serious. Jackson uses his cop status to terrorize the couple-- even conspiring with a local criminal and rapist to break into the couple’s home. NOT FUNNY.

One great aspects of the film is that it reveals the complexity of being in an interracial relationship combination that is not readily acceptable by mainstream society.—a Black woman married to a White man. It also reveals the true racist feelings of Wilson's so-called “I’m not prejudice friends. Frankly, at times I wondered why Wilson’s character didn’t kick his friend out of their housewarming party for making a derogatory dating remark about Asian and African American women.

What makes this story a little complex is that Washington’s father, played by Ron Glass, is not a fan of his daughter being in an interracial relationship which causes underlying tension in the couple’s relationship. Things get especially messy when Washington gets pregnant on purpose against her husband’s wishes.

I won’t say anymore. Go check out Lakeview Terrace for a nice outing and thank God you do not have a neighbor like Samuel L. Jackson!