4 stars****
David Loughery has penned a screenplay to be remembered and dissected for many a year to come, but what points was he hoping to make with this movie?
- How not to get on with your neighbor
- Policeman are not to be trusted
- White can’t marry black, especially when it’s the woman who is black
- Menace is good for you
What starts out as a small disagreement over security issues between neighbors escalates to the point of arson, burglary, assault, potential rape, and murder? It’s not just your average couple of weeks in your nice local new housing parkland
Samuel L Jackson is wonderful as the policeman with an attitude, but he has good reason to be as obnoxious as he plays it; his wife was playing around with a white man, both of whom then died. So when a white guy and his black wife move in next door, he tries so hard not to show bias; well at least for an hour or so.
Twenty million is a small movie budget these days and the picture has already broken even before DVD sales hit the shelves, along with downloads.
It’s well directed by Neil LABute, well acted by Kerry Washington and Patrick Wilson and well edited in post production.
It holds a steadily increasing fear of what you can see going wrong in the relationships, but you can’t tell them. Shout all you like, but they keep on doing what they shouldn’t.
It’s good to find a movie that doesn’t hold for all the clichés it can think of. The characters don’t always make the obvious moves; good writing and good direction guys.
We all know how to get on with our neighbors, but what if they don’t react the way you expect?
You trust your local policeman, but what if he has racial grudges and threatens to call his squad friends when the neighbors threaten him?
Mistaking the father for the husband and finding out the white man is not the removal man isn’t a good start.
Being a one man, heavily armed policeman as your neighborhood watchdog, maybe isn’t the best choice.
We should all learn from this movie. If you have a problem with a neighbor, solve it legally and quick; move if you have to – your life may be at risk!
Leave a Reply