AT THE MOVIES WITH DILLON KIMMEL
Once a well-adjusted, likable teenager, Kale (Shia LaBeouf) has fallen into a pit of self-pity, anger, and guilt since witnessing his dad’s death during a father-son fishing trip. Kale eventually takes out that anger on his insensitive Spanish teacher, laying him out with a solid left hook to the cheek. Unfortunately, the second-degree assault charge lands Kale three months house arrest and a neatly-fitted ankle bracelet that immediately alerts police if Kale strays more than 100 feet from his home.
The pitiful teen hunkers down for what he assumes will be an unbearably mind-numbing three months. Leave it to the new girl on the block and the serial killer next door to change all that.
Kale quickly discovers that his neighborhood is a reality show in progress, and he goes to great lengths to spy on all of his neighbors, not the least of which is the beautiful city girl Ashley (Sarah Roemer), who coincidentally never learned to close her blinds while undressing or doing aerobics, and the creepy neighbor guy Mr. Turner (David Morse), who seems to be connected to several recent kidnappings and murders.
Ashley and Kale forge a quick friendship, (though Kale is obviously looking for more than a buddy to share campfire stories with) and along with Kale’s friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) stake out Mr. Turner’s house in the hopes of uncovering what evil lurks within its walls.
It takes about 15 minutes for any semi-cultured movie enthusiast to realize that Disturbia is a remake of Hitchcock’s groundbreaking Rear Window. LaBeouf is a restless soul who combats cabin fever by opening up his neighbors’ closets and taking a peak inside at their scandalous (and murderous) skeletons. You thought suburbia was all swimming pools and BMWs, daffodils and roses, lawn gnomes and garden flamingos? Not in this ‘dis’turbia, where desperate housewives, porn addicts, and sadistic killers are all the rage.
LaBeouf does a satisfactory job portraying a volatile, lost teen who has nowhere to vent his anger except onto those around him. It is hinted that Kale has been arrested several times since his father’s death and that the judge goes easy on him with the sentence, saddling Kale with only house arrest when he could have locked the teen up for up to three years. Kale’s transformation is slow, deliberate, and subtle, but obvious by the time the closing credits roll.
Disturbia has its share of fallacies—logic problems, plot holes, and a lack of complexity to name a few—but most of this is offset by its sheer intensity. Suspense comes in waves, and in all the right moments. Moments that are meant to be scary are scary, and moments that are meant to be light-hearted are just that. It works well because the audience always knows how they are supposed to react.
Disturbia’s reshaping for the YouTube generation comes fully assembled with a slew of clever electronic gizmos and gadgets, without which the movie would be virtually impossible to create (most of the teens’ sleuthing is done through a camcorder which delivers a live feedback to Kale’s bedroom). The gadgets just build on the paranoia, driving home the fact that even in our homes there is sometimes no such thing as privacy when such technology is so readily available to an everyday snoop.
Director D.J. Caruso goes to great lengths to inflict a sense of paranoia onto his audience, forcing them to ask the question, “Am I as safe in my own home as I think?” Yea, probably. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy an otherwise solid film.
3.5 stars.
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