Industry insiders expect the new film Lakeview Terrace to win the box office competition this weekend, in its first week of release. That’s probably a good bet, but whether the film will have long-run success is much less clear.

Starring Samuel L. Jackson as a police officer who increasingly harasses the interracial young professional couple who moves next door to him in a wealthy Southern California neighborhood, the film is unusually logical in its early going, for a modern-day crime-suspense film, but is ultimately somewhat dreary, and in the end the filmmakers unwisely go for sensational effects instead of a rational exploration of the characters’ motives and likely actions.

Lakeview Terrace is a variation on the story of the 1992 film Unlawful Entry, which starred Kurt Russell, Madeleine Stowe, and Ray Liotta in the story of a police officer who becomes obsessed with the female member of a married couple who moves next door to him. In that version, the officer initially appears normal but is slowly revealed to be delusional and violent.

Lakeview Terrace adds race/color issues to the mix, to good and interesting effect. The scary-cop neighbor in this one is played by Samuel L. Jackson, and the couple is interracial, with a white male having married a black female. The film realistically explores various people’s reactions to the couple, and it brings some attention to the special difficulties involved in just being a black person in America. The film doesn’t suggest that these problems are excuses for failure, however, and that’s an important and salutary point.

In fact, Jackson’s character, Abel Turner, is intent on making sure his children learn to take responsibility for themselves. Unfortunately, he is unwisely and unkindly strict in his attempts to ensure that they go on the right path, which brings special resentment from his adolescent daughter. That, too, is a very realistic element. As the film progresses, however, he is revealed to be an extremely unsavory character and becomes a standard Hollywood villain.

Of additional interest is the fact that the well-to-do young professional couple next door, Chris and Lisa Mattson (played by Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington, respectively), represent a certain amount of irresponsibility.

As Turner points out in a tense conversation with Chris in a local tavern, Chris’s use of the word "whatever" to dismiss disagreement is emblematic of a kind of irresponsibility only those brought up in comfortable circumstances can afford. In addition, the Mattsons indulge in sexual activity during the daytime in their outdoor swimming pool in full view of the neighbors. Of course, such an incident, although inexcusable, should not result in an escalating series of confrontations, but that’s where Chris’s faults come into play.

Chris has no idea how to deal with people, and his efforts to get Abel to back off show an astonishing ignorance of how other people think, and hence they backfire badly. One finds it very difficult indeed to identify with such an ass as Chris, even if his antagonist is wrong, as Abel certainly is.

For a film to present a black character as upright and responsible while in conflict with a white one who is selfish and irresponsible is a nice twist on the usual cinematic cliches. The fact that the film presents Abel’s good characteristics and the Mattsons’ bad ones makes it initially a good deal more interesting and inteligent than the average suspense film.

Unfortunately, the makers of Lakeview Terrace decided audiences would require a big dose of sensationalism and melodramatic villainy, and these things ultimately undermine the good that the first half of the film does in making the characters complex and realistic.

It’s a pity, because this could have been more that just a run-of-the-mill suspense thriller. As it stands, there are some very good ideas in it, and some very solid scenes, but their effect is overwhelmed by the increasing nonsense as the film careens to its illogical conclusion.