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Teenager Kale Brecht becomes increasingly troubled after seeing his father die. Things come to a head when he punches a teacher for mentioning his dad. He escapes a jail sentence but is electronically tagged and put under house arrest. If he goes more than a hundred feet from his home the police will be called and he'll find himself banged up. Then his mother cancels his Xbox and iTunes subscriptions and cuts the plug off his TV. Kale is forced to find new ways to entertain himself and does so by spying on the locals. He mainly watches hot new neighbour Ashley. But then he becomes convinced that the mysterious Mr Turner is responsible for the disappearance and murders of a host of women. But can he find any proof and will anyone believe him anyway?
Director DJ Caruso has created an effective teen thriller to a well-worn pattern with this riff on "Rear Window". Though it may be rather predictable, it is still competently handled. Caruso establishes the strength and depth of Kale's relationship with his father through a short but warm and fuzzy fishing trip. Then he smashes the peace with a sudden and very nasty car crash. It is well-choreographed, looks harsh and scary and is necessarily brutal in its outcome. In fact all the action sequences in the film are harsh enough to be believable. All the blows look hard and the snappy editing gives them extra force, though the director tends to cut away from potential gore. Considering the youth market the movie is aimed at, the director keeps up a relatively sedate pace throughout, refusing to partake of the popular nosebleed edited sequences. There are a fair few montages however, such as one to show you how
bored Kale is before he starts spying on the neighbours and others to show him gazing the people in the surrounding houses. But they are all measured and don't feel repetitive. The wind-up to the big action set-pieces is quite slow. But during the final twenty minutes, all hell breaks loose, upping the action while losing the slow-burn tension once the inevitable game of cat-and-mouse begins. It's a shame really because that's when the film gets really predictable, from its references to "The Shining" to the excess of corpses and a highly unlikely basement dungeon.
The director maintains a broad palette of colours, but changes lighting to reflect mood. Kale's fishing trip with his father is warm and gold-tinged, while the ensuing car crash takes on a sickly green hue. His house arrest starts off fairly bright but becomes ever darker as the intrigue progresses until the shots are bathed in shadow. It's an assured, though hardly original use of colour. Caruso's timing is pretty good, using the old loud + sudden = scary equation to get a few jumps out of the audience, but not overusing the device. There are lots of false starts to keep the audience on its toes. But there are also moments of comedy that spring from the direction and actors rather than the script. So overall this is a solid though far from innovative hundred-and-four minutes of watchable thriller guff that won't trouble your dreams.
The screenplay by Christopher B Landon and Carl Ellsworth is a thinly veiled rehash of the Jimmy Stewart thriller "Rear Window". Of course, to bring it up to date, the hero is now a teenage boy on an ASBO, rather than a middle-aged invalid in a wheelchair. And the writers highlight the prevalence of technology, both with Kale losing Xbox and iTunes privileges and his use of lo-fi surveillance equipment, (botched up A-team style in his bedroom), to spy more closely on Turner. Because of the central character's age and previous behaviour, you know no-one will take his suspicions seriously. It's a foregone conclusion that events will conspire to make him look like the boy who cried wolf, to further discredit him in the eyes of the adults. It also ensures that it will be left to him to save the day, come the cat-and-mouse finale. It's a shame the movie relies so much on contrivance though, having the neighbours' various infidelities and dirty secrets occur in quick succession and the way the characters encounter each other.
The characterisation is anaemic throughout. Kale is a good lad, who is misunderstood. His mother is the standard harassed, hard-working single mom, but doesn't go as far as having a personality. Ashley is the feisty, slightly tomboyish girl-next-door, who never gets beyond love interest status. Meanwhile his best mate is your average comic relief sidekick. And Mr Turner is clearly never going to be anything other than a mass murderer. The dialogue is your common or garden "ask a silly question" thriller speech, interspersed with gobbets of teen-speak and unnecessary expletives. So there is nothing original here.
Shia LaBoeuf is rapidly becoming one of my favourite young actors. No matter what the part, he brings warmth and humanity to it. As Kale Brecht, he's an infinitely likable but troubled young man. You can tell exactly what's going on in the character's head just by looking at his face. The best example is when his father's death is relayed solely through LaBoeuf's expression. It makes him a highly sympathetic lead. He's also got lovely timing, squeezing little drops of comedy out of brief pauses or certain looks.
Sarah Roemer, who plays Ashley is straight off the hot young actress production line. She's clearly older than her character but has an appealing fresh-faced prettiness and decent chemistry with LaBoeuf. She is sufficiently flirty and game to convince as the sort of girl who would get involved with Kale's surveillance shenanigans. As his best mate Ronnie, Aaron Yoo is the standard ethnic comic relief. But he plays the role with enthusiasm and has strong enough timing to succeed in it. Carrie-Ann Moss doesn't get enough screen-time as LaBoeuf's yummy mummy, so is likable in a vague way. Character actor David Morse has played plenty of bad guys in his time so is more than capable of menacing behaviour as Mr Turner. He's also sly, cunning and cocky. If his performance is somewhat obvious, it's more to do with the limitations of the script than his interpretation of the part.
Geoff Zanelli's original score relies heavily on the string section of the orchestra. You know it's a thriller from the cacophonous strings that open proceedings, while warm strings and woodwinds show how warm and fuzzy Kale and his father's relationship is. These are replaced by melancholy fiddle for Mr Brecht's death and sad strings for his empty study. Ashley is represented by Spanish guitar motifs and there are traditional thriller string suites when things start to get creepy. Danger gets a different type of music - there are lots of chiming synths and insistent brass that is intended to set your nerves on edge or threatening drums and rip-offs of Bernard Hermann's stabbing strings from "Psycho". The other soundtrack choices are less effective and more predictable, from the whiny nu-metal, to the jangly rock, syrupy R 'n' B, loud hip-hop and lame indie rock that accompany all movies aimed at teenage boys.
"Disturbia" is a competently made movie with a likeable lead turn from rising star Shia LaBoeuf. However it is entirely unoriginal and lacks both thrills and scares, making it an indifferent addition to the canon of beware-thy-neighbours thrillers. By all means, watch it of it's on late-night TV and there's nothing else on, but don't go out of your way to get hold of it.
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I agree completely: competent, but too much like "Rear Window"; and what pissed me off is that the actor and director didn't even acknowledge it in the audio commentary. Still, the acting was good (particularly by Morse) and it ended up being a reasonable time killer....Chris :)
Expired-Account 26.09.2007 22:54
May well watch this at some point but not seen it yet, very helpful review
lobourse 26.09.2007 22:42
Saw the trailer for this, and thought it looked reasonable. Good review
Advantages: Pretty decent performances, suspenseful at times, Disadvantages: Predictable, formulaic teen movie, apparently tries to be funny but I didn't feel that worked
IzzyS 27.01.2008 (27.01.2008)
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Review of Disturbia (DVD)
Advantages: Terrific tension built up throughout the film, excellent performances all round. Disadvantages: Slow to get going, build up is gradual and this may put some viewers off.
RazzaLazza 15.03.2008 (15.03.2008)
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Review of Disturbia (DVD)
![Disturbia [DVD] [2007]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/77912448.jpg "Disturbia [DVD] [2007]")
Sep 26th, 2007
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