"Lakeview Terrace"

Last night I went to see the new Samuel Jackson and Kerry Washington movie, "Lakeview Terrace". It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. It was "Training Day" meets "Twelve Angry Men" meets "Crash". As always, Samuel Jackson's performance was on point, but the rest of the actors and actresses didn't stand out. The most intriguing thing about the movie, outside of Jackson's acting, was the courage of the storyline to explore the race theme.

Sorry to be the spoiler, but the movie's about a Black cop whose late wife cheated on him with her white boss (you find this out near the movie's end, but the formulaic plot makes it obvious from the first minute of the film). So, his grudge against interracial couples leads him to make the lives of his neighbors (a white man married to a Black woman) a living hell. Michael Keaton's "Pacific Heights" performance was much more thrilling and believable, but Jackson's character (Abel Turner) combines wit and cynicism with the psychopath mentality. What was disappointing was the mixture of religious fundamentalism in Jackson's character - not necessary, from my view.

But back to the theme of race. The best part of the movie, to me, was the portrayal of the difficulties that this interracial couple faces due to America's poor legacy of race relations. We're used to seeing TV and film portray white bigots, but this movie turns racism on its head and makes the Black lead character the one who's racist. Yeah, I know the old line that Blacks can't be racist because we don't have power (we can be prejudiced, though, since prejudice is an attitude); I just don't buy that bullcrap. And the scenes where the white husband is tired and frustrated at dealing with the mistreatment he receives because he's in an interracial marriage, and the Black wife tells him he has no idea -- no clue -- of how exasperating it is to deal with racism -- now those scenes are priceless. As are the innuendoes that some whites' adoption of "Black" mores might be rooted in an identity crisis of their own or a desire to experiment with the 'exotic', and the double standard Black women face when they date white men -- the stigma they encounter that isn't there when Black men date and marry white women.

Though "Lakeview Terrace" lacks the suspenseful depth and believability of, say, a "Pacific Heights", or the well-written script of a "Crash", it does have the courage to unearth some of the issues that come with race relations in America. I just hope movie-goers are up for the "courageous conversations about race" this movie sets the stage for.