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Dir. Neil LeBute

Rating: 5.8  |  0 User Reviews  |  Send to Friend

By Sam Benesby

Filmmaker Neil Lebute has been known to explore some of the more dark and sinister aspects of the human consciousness in previous works like In the Company of Men and The Shape of Things. In his new film, Lebute attempts to display the dark underbelly of modern American racism as conventionally as possible. The film begins when clearly conflicted single father Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson) spots a young interracial couple moving into the house next door in his upper class Southern California neighborhood. Chris (Patrick Wilson) and Lisa (Kerry Washington) are first time homeowners, ecstatic about their new station in life, at least until they unwittingly draw the rancor of Turner, who begins a systematic assault on their well-being. With raging California wildfires as a backdrop, the exchanges between the parties escalate until a dramatic climax is reached. There is legitimately good chemistry between the leads, especially Wilson and Washington, and some classic Samuel L. hardass moments as when he forces a shotgun under a criminal's head, telling him to be a man and pull the trigger. Where the film loses ground, however, is entirely due to the barely sketched-out character of Abel. Through his amicable interactions with Asians and Latinos, it’s made apparent that his prejudice is directed only at white men because, as he tells Chris in a bar, “White boys think they can take whatever they want." As a result, the film loses a great deal of its power, LeBute allows it to get dragged into a cliché-ridden Hollywood dramatic thriller. With concise directing and a convincing cast, the infirmity of the film falls directly upon the screenwriters, and, quite possibly, a studio's interference in dealing with a potentially dangerous and upsetting topic. If it feels like LeBute is settling for the lowest common denominator here, at least the film pokes at the embers of something more significant. It never generates much of a fire, but there is some heat at its core.

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