Disturbia
Hitchcock meets the MTV set in 2007’s Disturbia, a thriller directed by D.J. Caruso (Two for the Money, Taking Lives). Filmed on location in the California towns of Whittier and Pasadena, the movie is set in the fictional town of Disturbia, California and tells the story of obsession, privacy, voyeurism, and suburban life. Some have considered the film to be a retelling of Hitchcock’s Rear Window, but Disturbia actually has more in common with The Simpsons episode Bart of Darkness than with the classic thriller. Naturally, Bart of Darkness was a parody of Rear Window, so it all works somehow.
Shia LaBeouf, the 21-year-old “next big thing,” stars as Kale Brecht, a teenage boy. As the film begins, Kale and his father are on a fishing trip when a sudden accident takes his father’s life and leaves Kale in a state of melancholy. He becomes the typical troubled teen because of the accident and has issues with authority. Kale’s mother, Julie (Carrie-Anne Moss) tries to help, but he eventually has an incident with a Spanish teacher that leaves him under house arrest for three months. During those three months, Kale becomes bored and becomes suspicious of his neighbour, Robert Turner (David Morse). With the help of the girl next door (Sarah Roemer) and Kale’s best friend (Aaron Yoo), Kale tries to discover the truth about his neighbour, leading to some suspenseful moments.
Disturbia works because it has a witty script and because the performances work. The script, penned by Christopher B. Landon (son of Michael Landon), is strong and filled with many funny segments between the characters. The relationship between LaBeouf’s character and his best friend is hilarious and ripped right out of some of the better teen comedies but made more realistic. The dialogue rings true and the performers work to deliver the lines with substance over style, often purposefully stumbling through the words and not trying to sound “smart.” It’s interesting when the dialogue from an understated thriller sounds a lot more true to teen culture than the dialogue from an Oscar-winner.
The performances here are all quite good, too. Morse as the creepy neighbour is highly effective, as we are given very little by which to make up our minds and we see the situation as Kale does. Morse is one of the stronger character actors out there today and he works the creepy psycho character well. LaBeouf was the best part about the dismal Transformers and he’s even better here. Actually acting like a teenager, complete with the requisite boredom and curiosity for the hot neighbour girl, LaBeouf functions well in the universe of Disturbia and manages to play a protagonist with enough faults and flaws to actually seem like a normal high-schooler. It helps matters that Sarah Roemer’s unassuming good looks are put to use as well, as she never overwhelms as an unrealistic lead love interest like other female leads tend to do in these types of genre pieces.
Disturbia packs enough pop culture references and product placements into it that it can look a little like an ad at times, but the fun of the story is enough to get over those humps. There are also some significant plot holes, which we won’t get into here, but the characters and the script does away with them by forcing attention on other matters. It’s typical teen MTV fare, but better and more interesting. The riff on Rear Window, while apparent, probably won’t draw any parallels to its target audience and Disturbia will likely seem quite original to most that see it.
The best bits of Disturbia are the interactions with the characters and the suspiciousness about the neighbour. The worst bits, and there are quite a few sadly, are wrapped up in the climax and in the countless product placements. Sure, adding real products makes it ring true. But mentioning the products by name several times until everybody’s got an iPod clinging to their earlobes is just gaudy. The film’s finale is also a little silly, with Kale racing through some labyrinthine fortress trying to save dear mom. It gets a bit hackneyed and the previous emotional attachments that were so carefully built crumble under the Hollywood closing. It’s a shame, but the rest of Disturbia is still a dutiful little suspense thriller.
Disturbia was better than I expected and was a fun little movie. It crumbles in places and feels a bit too MTV-esque for my personal tastes, but it does have an appeal to its target audience and it should work with teens looking for a good scare and a bit of Red Bull product placement. LaBeouf works well with the other actors, the tension is often very convincing, and the script is quite witty and fun. Disturbia is worth a look, but won’t move mountains or do anything other than provide about 105 minutes of decent popcorn fun.
Trailer:
