Lakeview Terrace
Behold the movie without a screenplay! “Lakeview Terrace” has some clever dialogue and some effective scenes that give meaty material to its talented stars: Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington. But as a piece of storytelling, it is absent and inept. It never moves beyond the first act, which pits neighbor against neighbor in a racially pitched battle. There are no twists, no complications. The arguments get louder and more violent but remain substantively the same. Early on, authoritarian African-American cop Jackson subtly undermines his new white neighbor (Wilson) out of distaste for his marriage to a black woman (Washington). Much later, the dispute is unchanged, but they’re poking at each other through a fence with a chainsaw and a rake. Given this progress, the movie can only end someplace absurd, where people behave entirely out of character. You’re better off not sticking around to watch it go there.