Directed by
D J Caruso
122 minutes
Rated M
Reviewed by
Sharon Hurst
Disturbia
Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Kale (Shia LaBeouf) is suffering from his father’s death a year before. When he punches a teacher at school, Kale is put under house arrest for three months. He must wear an ankle bracelet which will summon the police if he goes outside a100-foot perimeter of his home. Going stir crazy, along with his friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo), he takes to observing the neighbours, especially young spunk Ashley (Sarah Roemer), who calls their bluff and comes over, soon to be included in the surveillance games. The game turns nasty as the trio begin to suspect next door neighbour Mr Turner (David Morse) could be a serial killer, or is it just their over-active teenage imaginations?With no fore-knowledge of this film, I found myself pleasantly surprised, even if it did follow a remarkably similar plotline to Rear Window. With its narrowly-confined focus, it rapidly built up the tension, and the sense of lurking menace. This suburbia is not the calm, safe place of mown lawns, daily routines and neat houses that it at first seems. The sense that a tranquil life can be so easily shattered is grippingly introduced at the start when a horrendous car crash sees Kale’s father killed. The crash scene is so well-orchestrated that it is very shocking.
The sense of being an observer is introduced from the first scene in which Kale and his father are fishing and Kale asks his dad if the fish sees them – “No, but he feels us watching,” is the reply. Using today’s technology-savvy teens as the protagonists makes for an interesting twist to the standard old stake-out scenario. Excellent use is made of mobile phones and a video camera which feeds back to Kale’s computer. Also, because the kids are not thriller hero types but just average bored teens getting their kicks from prying we find it very easy to go along with their drama as things heat up for them.
The film effectively moves from incidents of black humour and typical teenage behaviour into a zone with real fear and tension coming to the fore. Mind you, a couple of highly derivative scenes almost spoil one’s involvement but the strong performances from the three kids really drive things along.
LaBeouf is quite a talent, and contributes greatly to the believability of this highly unlikely plot. Roemer is strong as the independent-minded Ashley, while Yoo as Ronnie is a face to watch in the future. David Morse's performance was a little too stereotyped for my liking as the potential suspect, while Carrie-Anne Moss didn’t really have enough to work with as Kale’s mum.
However, despite its formulaic and derivative elements, along with the typical American tendency to put predictable and manipulative music in where it’s just not needed, the film was entertaining for its genre and I certainly jumped and held my breath in all the right spots.
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