Advertisement

Movies & TV

Lakeview Terrace

LAKEVIEW TERRACE (Sony, 2008) D: Neil LaBute, w/ Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Wilson. Rating: NNNN DVD package: NN Rating: NNNN


A middle-class mixed-race couple move into a new house and discover that their next-door neighbour hates them. The neighbour’s a cop. Hostilities escalate slowly and plausibly to an original and disturbing climax.

[rssbreak]

No one here is one-dimensional. Everybody has his or her secrets and lies. Race is important, but money, class, age and status play into the mix, too, and the script offers no easy answers.

Director Neil LaBute goes for long takes to let his actors shine. Samuel L. Jackson delivers a complex mix of menace, charm, guilt, doubt and suffering. Patrick Wilson makes his white guy the essence of niceness without making him contemptible.

LaBute spends much of his commentary on explaining the movie’s subtleties and praising his cast. The former is helpful the latter isn’t.

EXTRAS Commentary, three-part making-of doc. Widescreen. English, French, Spanish, Thai audio. English, French, Spanish, Thai, Chinese, Korean subtitles.

Advertisement

Exclusive content and events straight to your inbox

Subscribe to our Newsletter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By signing up, I agree to receive emails from Now Toronto and to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.

Recently Posted