Lakeview Terrace is a 2008 American crime thriller film[2] directed by Neil LaBute, written by David Loughery and Howard Korder, co-produced by James Lassiter and Will Smith, and starring Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington.

When Chris goes to a local bar, Abel enters and tells him that his own wife died in a traffic accident while alone with her white male employer, although she was supposed to be nursing an elderly Jewish patient, leading him to believe that she was being unfaithful.

Remembering the corrupt cop’s previous admission, Chris retorts that Abel should have listened to his wife and tauntingly implies his belligerent attitude drove her to cheat.

Chris survives the shooting, and in the ambulance, he and Lisa talk with pride about their home, neighborhood, and soon-to-be family, while the wildfires finally seem to be contained.

The plot was loosely based on real life events in Altadena, California, involving an interracial couple, John and Mellaine Hamilton, and Irsie Henry, an African-American Los Angeles police officer.

[4] Journalist Andre Coleman received a Los Angeles' Press Club Award for Excellence in Journalism for his series of articles in the Weekly.

The site's critical consensus reads, "This thriller about a menacing cop wreaking havoc on his neighbors is tense enough but threatens absurdity when it enters into excessive potboiler territory.

[10] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a very positive review, awarding it his highest rating of four stars and saying: "Some will find it exciting.

"[11] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle also enjoyed the film, saying: "In its overall shape and message, Lakeview Terrace is a conventional suspense thriller, but the details kick it up a notch.

"[12] J.R. Jones of the Chicago Reader called the film "one of the toughest racial dramas to come out of Hollywood since the fires died down – much tougher, for instance, than Paul Haggis's hand-wringing Oscar winner Crash.

"[14] Anthony Lane of The New Yorker said that "the first hour of the film ... feels dangerous, necessary, and rife with comic disturbance," but added that "the later stages ... overheat and spill into silliness.

"[15] James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film two stars out of four, saying that "the first two-thirds of Lakeview Terrace offer a little more subtlety and complexity than the seemingly straightforward premise would afford, but the climax is loud, dumb, generic, and over-the-top.

"[17] Sura Wood of The Hollywood Reporter said: "[The idea of] a black actor cast as the virulent bigot, with the object of his campaign of harassment the young interracial couple who move in next door, could be viewed as a novel twist.

"[18] Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal gave it one half of a star out of five, and called the film a "joyless and airless suspense thriller.