Chuck Zlotnick / Sony Pictures Review in a Hurry: Samuel L. Jackson stars as Abel Turner, a veteran LAPD officer driven over the edge by the interracial marriage of his new neighbors, Chris (Patrick Wilson) and Lisa (Kerry Washington). Director Neil LaBute struggles mightily to turn a reliable B-movie premise (maniac cop goes too far) into a deep social commentary about race, or real estate, or something, but the result is an inexplicable mess.
The Bigger Picture: Abel is a cop and widower raising two kids when Chris and Lisa show up. He glowers at them through his windows and hedges, then introduces himself by pretending to be a carjacker.
That's the beginning of an escalating pattern of harassment, as Abel blinds them with his high-powered security lights, sabotages their air conditioner, and slashes the tires of Chris' wimpy little Prius.
It's also, unfortunately, the start of the movie's problems. LaBute seems to want to make Abel something more than a simple ogre. But the effort is lost in all the competing motivations offered for Abel's rampage: maybe he's a racist, maybe he wants Lisa for himself, maybe he's morally offended by his squishy liberal neighbors, or maybe he's just crazy.
None of the reasons work, because Chris and Lisa, despite epic cluelessness, are clearly the victims, while Abel might as well twirl his mustache while he cackles evilly.
The whole thing grinds to a dull, inevitable showdown with guns and violence, as a giant, out-of-control metaphor—sorry, a raging wildfire—looms in the background, burning up the hillsides behind the neat suburban lawns.