Movie Review Lakeview Terrace

Lakeview Terrace (2009) 

Directed by Neil Labute

Written by Neil Labute 

Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington

Release Date September 19th, 2009 

Published September 20th, 2009 

With a title like Lakeview Terrace one is not out of line to imagine a comedy about neighbors arguing over trees and zoning. Then you take into account the film's horrible poster and ad campaign which make it look like another cheeseball Hollywood thriller. Writer-Director Neil Labute is far too talented to make just another cheesy thriller.

Labute's Lakeview Terrace is a boiling pot of emotion bubbling into a raging inferno. This character based thriller ratchets up the excitement by exploiting the real ways in which people fail one another.

Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson) has been in the LAPD for 27 years. He is a single father of 2 children, his wife was killed 3 years ago in a car wreck. On the surface he seems like the kind of man you would wish for as a neighbor. That is not the case unfortunately, for Chris (Patrick Wlson) and Lisa (Kerry Washington) Mattson, newlyweds who move into their very first home, right next to Turner.

Right off the bat there is tension. Chris leaves the moving van in the street overnight and Turner leaves a warning ticket. Later, Turner pretends to be a carjacker and frightens Chris as he sits in his car. That incident is followed by an uncomfortable conversation where Abel seems to imply his disgust for interracial couples. And things get worse from there.

I don't want to reveal too much of this plot because there are important little insights dropped in along the way that play on the motivations of these characters. Motivation is Labute's muse in Lakeview Terrace. The writer-director goes out of his way to make certain that the actions of his characters emanate from a place of human motivation.

Jackson may be a casual racist and serious hardass but he is not some overarching, mustache twirling, super villain. His motivations are human and believable and because of that, what happens is far more shocking and surprising. The same can be said of Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington who connect well as a couple and engage in the kinds of conversations and disagreements that real couples have.

Those little, spiky conversations where a couple pick on each other in ways that only a couple can are Neil Labute's strong suit and Wilson and Washington are terrific in delivering in those moments.

Arguably, the most thrilling aspect of Lakeview Terrace is Neil Labute's dialogue which is full of rich detail and little of that typically expository dialogue that obviously explains why characters do what they do. The script is free of those moments where characters do everything but turn to the camera to explain the plot. In Lakeview Terrace the important details are woven seamlessly into the story.

The ever increasingly nasty conversations between Abel and Chris are particularly exciting. Listen to the way Jackson leaps on Chris's words. He shifts Chris' context, he has no tolerance for vagary or the kind of faux pleasantries that people use on one another to avoid talking. This confrontational style keeps not just Chris but the audience on edge and contributes to the ever increasing tension of the story.

Breathtaking and edge of your seat excitement are cliches that critics use far too often. Nevertheless, there were more than a few moments of Lakeview Terrace where I was sitting bolt upright staring at the screen at the edge of my seat with my breath caught in my throat. Lakeview Terrace is exciting and surprising even as the conclusion feels a little too easily settled.

Neil Labute is a master who could never settle for the cliches of the thriller. In Lakeview Terrace he shatters the cliches, cuts through our expectations and crafts a devilishly thrilling entertainment.

Movie Review: Death at a Funeral

Death at a Funeral (2010) 

Directed by Neil Labute 

Written by Dean Craig 

Starring Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Loretta Devine, Regina Hall, Zoe Saldana, Luke Wilson

Release Date April 16th, 2010 

Published April 16th, 2010 

Director Neil Labute has a terrific eye for human behavior. It's a very particular and often quite dim view of humanity that lead to brutal yet insightful films like In the Company of Men and his magnum opus of anger and inhumanity Your Friends and Neighbors. Yet, there is also a brilliantly whimsical side to the director of the dark side of humanity.

In Nurse Betty Neil Labute took the cute as a button Renee Zellweger and had her play a woman who falls in love with a soap opera character following a psychotic break brought on by witnessing the violent murder of her brutish husband. From there begins a road picture and a strangely romantic and wondrous performance from Morgan Freeman as the killer who falls for Betty from afar. 

The strange comic sensibilities of Nurse Betty were a turn off for many audiences but for me it was a remarkable insight into a filmmaker who is tuned to a very different wavelength than most other filmmakers or other human beings in general. It is this quality that makes Neil Labute perfect for the new comedy Death at a Funeral. What other director could find so much wacky fun at a funeral? 

Chris Rock stars in Death at a Funeral as Aaron the oldest son of a family that just lost its patriarch. Aaron is a tax attorney who longs to be a novelist and lives in the shadow of his slightly younger brother Ryan (Martin Lawrence) a successful writer of trashy novels. This however is the least of Aaron's troubles as he has his wife Michelle (Regina Hall) pushing to have a baby and his mother Cynthia (Loretta Devine) constantly on the verge of a meltdown.

Oh and then there is the issue of the funeral home delivering the wrong body. Yikes! Among the funeral guests are Aaron's cousin Elaine (Zoe Saldana) and her boyfriend Oscar (James Marsden) who dreads seeing Elaine's father (Ron Glass) who has made it clear how much he hates Oscar. They are joined by Elaine's brother Jeff (Columbus Short) a minor drug dealer whose pill concoction is set to make trouble at the funeral.

Family friend Norman (Tracey Morgan) and his pal Derek (Luke Wilson) each have a different purpose at the funeral. Norman is helping out by bringing cranky Uncle Russell (Danny Glover) to the funeral while Derek will be seeking out Elaine with whom he has a romantic past that he hopes to rekindle. 

And then there is a mystery guest. Peter Dinklage plays Frank, the same role he played in the original British version of Death at a Funeral in 2007. Frank holds the key to a major subplot that drives the middle portion of the film to a wild climax that though it comes up a little short by being too easy, does not fail so completely as to sink the whole film. 

Death at a Funeral brilliantly builds comic momentum from the opening scenes involving the wrong body in the casket to the reveal of Frank's secret to Oscar's wild drug infused ride to finally sitting everyone down for the actual funeral. It's remarkable how Labute keeps all of these comic plates spinning and pays off each set piece with a big, big laugh. 

The cast of Death at a Funeral is first rate with Marsden stealing scene after scene with his acid trip wackiness while Chris Rock grounds the film by bringing the craziness back to earth with exasperated truthfulness. Rock is used to driving the comedy by prodding the actors around him with his in your face style. Here, Rock is more relaxed than ever before and it suits him. He may not be pushing the edges but his punchlines are just as strong. 

Neil Labute worked from a script that is credited to original Death at a Funeral writer Dean Craig. Indeed the characters, set pieces and other aspects of the story are almost entirely unchanged from the 2007 film. What is different is the perspective Labute and his cast brings to the picture. There is more willingness by all involved to explore the black comedy side (not a racial observation) of a story that is after all a comedy set at a funeral. 

Especially interesting is the exploration of gay panic, something that in African American circles is an especially touchy subject. This part will contain spoilers so skip to the last paragraph if you hate spoilers, Rock and Lawrence in the film's main plot deftly balance horror, acceptance and humor at the prospect of their father's homosexuality. I would have liked to see a little more attention paid to this subject, it's wrapped up a little too neatly in Rock's closing speech, but overall well handled and bold for merely being in the movie. 

Death at a Funeral is wacky and smart, slapsticky but with an eye for the laughs that don't involve bodies being dumped out of caskets. I could have done without the gross-out moments with Tracey Morgan and Danny Glover, which I will not detail here, but it's not so horrible that it ruins the film. Nor does the relatively comfy wrap up at the film’s end take away from the big laughs and wonderful discomfort of Death at a Funeral.

Movie Review: The Wicker Man

The Wicker Man (2006)

Directed by Neil Labute 

Written by Neil Labute 

Starring Nicolas Cage, Ellen Burstyn, Leelee Sobieski, Frances Conroy

Release Date September 2nd, 2006

Published September 1st, 2006

Director Neil LaBute's war of the sexes examinations of the male-female dynamic are some of the most caustic and elucidating treatises on men and women thus far brought to the screen. His In The Company of Men, Your Friends, and Neighbors and The Shape of Things are withering, gut wrenching contests of highly neurotic will. Each film a wringing of the writer-director's psyche on to the screen. To this point in his career LaBute had avoided simplistic metaphor in favor of the raw examination of his feelings of insecurity and inferiority.

For his latest film, however, LaBute has waded neck deep into the muck of a loaded metaphor. In The Wicker Man, a loose remake of 1973's horror thriller of the same title, LaBute places his battle of sexes inside a dopey thriller plot that any other director could have pulled out of his ass. Working uncomfortably within genre constraints, Labute chafes at his thriller plot which crowds out the more interesting ideas about men and women that he desperately crams into into sides of the picture.

Thus The Wicker Man becomes a dippy hodgepodge of thriller cliches and mixed metaphor. But mostly, it's  a tedious trip to the movies.

Edward Malus (Nicolas Cage) just received a letter from his ex-lover Willow (Kate Beahan) and was rather shocked at the content. This women he loved; who disappeared without saying goodbye some years earlier, is calling on him to come to a remote island off the coast of Washington state where a girl who may or may not be his daughter has gone missing.

Making the journey to the island, Edward encounters a society of women who worship nature and dominate the men of the island who are seemingly slaves. Lead by Sister Summerisle (Ellen Burstyn); there is a distinctly creepy vibe to this little cult despite the gentility of most residents.

Searching for the child Edward is stonewalled by everyone as someone is tries to make it seem as if the child never existed. The truth is a sinister twist you can likely see coming even if you have never seen the original 1973 Wicker Man. The only real shock you may get from The Wicker Man 2006 is in the credits when you see this dull witted, plodding mess is directed by the usually tart and ingenious writer-director Neil Labute.

Based on the British cult classic; The Wicker Man was reimagined by Neil LaBute as an examination of a society dominated by women. The female of the species have always fascinated LaBute whose debut picture In The Company of Men examined a pair of misogynists who take advantage of a beautiful blind woman only to have her destroy them. Your Friends & Neighbors was yet another navel gazing assessment of male female dynamics.

LaBute's most intense, and I think telling, portrayal of women was 2003's The Shape of Things in which a nerd, played by Paul Rudd, is reshaped, literally and figuratively, by a woman played by Rachel Weisz. The change in the nerdy exterior of Rudd's character is eventually revealed to be a large scale social experitment by Weisz's ambitious college student. This film exemplifies an idea that comes a little clearer in The Wicker Man, Neil LaBute is afraid of the power women wield over men.

Women can drive men to do anything in Neil LaBute's universe and men are ill equipped to stop them. In The Wicker Man all of the men of the island exist as breeding stock and nothing more. Cage may be an alpha male but he is naturally undone by the far more clever women who, even though their devious plot is too convoluted to be believed, control his every move.

This idea of LaBute examining his fear of women through a thriller story about a cult of powerful women is interesting but that is not really what we get in The Wicker Man. Rather, what came of the picture is a dull mystery about a dopey tough guy and a search for a missing girl that has all of the suspense of a David Spade movie.

Is it possible that Neil Labute lost control over this picture in the editing room? Given the exceptional talent he has shown in the past that is really the only explanation I can think of for the odd shifts in tone in the picture and the uncomfortable attempts to force suspense where none exists. A scene where Cage seeks a place to stay for a night finds Cage overacting and gesticulating in a vain attempt to give the scene some tension when in fact it is just a guy checking in to a slightly off-kilter inn.

Neil Labute is simply too talented to have crafted such a mess of a movie like The Wicker Man.

Nicolas Cage as a cop hunting for a missing girl on a remote pacific northwest island is the bare bones of a plot that includes references to the occult, to witchcraft, and druidism. Unfortunately, somewhere in the editing, the film became about the search for the missing girl, a red herring of immensely stupid proportion, and not about these eccentric and downright weird characters.

Neil LaBute, a master of dialogue and conniving characters, here settles for a mystery story that eschews any real examination of the characters. He sets up metaphors but never delivers the true subtext. You can infer from the fact that the island is home to a cult dominated by women with men kept as breeding stock; that LaBute is commenting subtextually about the power of women over men. However, LaBute never takes the time to examine the dynamic. All is inferred then shoved aside for more thriller genre goofiness.

The Wicker Man is a shockingly goofy movie that leaves one scratching his head; wondering how such talented people as Nicolas Cage and Neil LaBute could have made such a stunningly bad picture. The ambitions of both Cage and LaBute are visible around the edges but front and center is sheer goofiness that leaves its cast and creators with egg on their faces.

Movie Review: The Shape of Things

The Shape of Things (2003) 

Directed by Neil LaBute

Written by Neil LaBute 

Starring Paul Rudd, Gretchen Mol, Frederick Weller, Rachel Weisz 

Release Date May 9th, 2003 

Published May 8th, 2003 

Writer/Director Neil LaBute could teach a master’s class in cruelty. In his first film, In The Company Of Men, LaBute had two male characters inflict all sorts of emotional torture on a blind woman until one of the men destroyed the other. Then in Your Friends and Neighbors, he poured all of his sadistic rage into one character, Jason Patric's fearsome Cary, and wielded the character as a tool to inflict cruelty on the rest of the cast. After a brief respite in mainstream filmmaking, LaBute returned to his roots for The Shape of Things, a caustic lesson in male-female relationships in stark contrast to the usual romantic observations of conventional Hollywood.

Paul Rudd stars as Adam, a timid, nerdy museum worker who while finishing his shift one day encounters a woman who has crawled over the velvet rope surrounding an almost nude statue. Her name is Evelyn (Rachel Weisz), her intent is to deface the statue with spray paint, and she dares Adam to stop her. At the same time, she is flirting heavily, keeping the painfully shy Adam off balance to the point that he walks away allowing her to finish the job on the statue.

Evelyn was nice enough to give Adam her number and the two begin dating. Shoot ahead a few weeks and Adam and Evelyn are attending a play where she will meet his two closest friends, Jen (Gretchen Mol) and Phillip (Frederick Weller), a soon to be married couple. She is meeting them for the first time and she hopes they will notice how she has changed him. Adam has lost weight and is acting very different from the shy nerd the couple has always known.

There are more changes, Adam is dressing better, his hair is styled and eventually he goes so far as to get a nose job. He's also acting different as when he and Jen share a stolen kiss in the park. All of it aided and abetted by Evelyn's manipulations until an emotional finish that is shocking and devastating in ways you could never predict.

This is familiar ground for Neil LaBute yet he still manages to surprise and shock. Like David Mamet, John Sayles or Kevin Smith, LaBute is the rare screenwriter with his own very distinctive voice. Labute's dialogue is wrapped in the same barbed wire as Mamet but without having to serve any sort of conventional plot. Words fall like blows from LaBute’s characters and the emotional warfare is as devastating as any bullet.

LaBute also has a terrific ear for music, employing the brilliant Elvis Costello for both score and storytelling device. Fans of Costello should take note of each song they recognize and where it is placed in the film. This is especially attention grabbing on a second viewing when you know what is to come next.

The main problems of the film stem from lead Paul Rudd who overplays some of Adam's nerd tendencies. Watch in the park scene with Gretchen Mol his Urkel-esque acting style that plays throughout most of the film. By the end he comes around enough to contribute to the film’s painful finale but his performance early on stands out as the film’s weakest point.

Some might find the film’s ending to be far fetched but if you give in to the characters and invest yourself in LaBute’s dialogue, you should be able to forgive him his over the top demonstrations. The Shape Of Things is an astounding observation of the kind cruelty that only intimacy can reap. Only someone who you invest your emotions in fully can hurt you this bad. The film may take that last point to an extreme but it's a mighty powerful and shocking extreme that does not come easy.

Movie Review Possession

Possession (2002) 

Directed by Neil Labute 

Written by David Henry Hwang, Laura Jones, Neil Labute 

Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhardt, Jeremy Northam, Jennifer Ehle, Lena Headey 

Release date August 16th, 2002 

Published August 16th, 2002 

As something of a writer myself, I can only imagine how difficult it must be to make a film about writing. In Possession, writer/director Neil Labute (with help from Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart) nearly pulls it off. Unfortunately, there is a limit to how interesting watching people conduct research about great writers can be.

Eckhart is an American historian named Roland Mitchell, working and living in Britain. In the midst of researching a poet named Randolf Henry Ash, played in flashback by Jeremy Northam, he comes across a letter that has gone unseen for over a hundred years. Rather than turning it over to his superiors, Roland keeps it until he can verify its authenticity. This leads him to a fellow researcher named Maud Bailey (Paltrow), who is an expert in all things Ash. 

The letter is quite complicated, as it is not addressed to his wife (as most of Ash's work is), but rather, to a mystery woman. For historians, this is an earth-shattering discovery. Ash's fidelity and love for his wife is part of his legend. The mystery woman is a fellow writer named Christabel La Motte (Jennifer Ehle). Her history is notable for her open homosexuality and what was thought to be a fitful relationship with her maid. The deeper the research the more interesting the revelation. I won't spoil the film's many turns.

The story is interesting and well plotted but the romance between Eckhart and Paltrow never quite sparks. The two just don't have the chemistry it takes to make the film burn with the passion Labute is obviously looking for; the kind of passion that would inspire such great romantic writing. In the film's parallel story of Ash and Christabel, there is great passion. Northam and Ehle do burn up the screen and their writing is vivid and lovely.

Unfortunately that isn't enough for me to fully recommend Possession. This certainly isn't a bad film but the lack of chemistry between the two leads undoes most of the strong narrative. For fans of Paltrow, Possession may be a worthy rental.