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3/3/2008
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Disturbia (2007)
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Just before Shia LaBoeuf hit the big-time with the lead role in Transformers, he starred in this loose remake of Rear Window. Instead of James Stewart’s wheelchair-bound voyeur, we have Kale Brecht (LaBoeuf), a teenager who’s gone off the rails after the death of his father. Kale is arrested for assaulting his teacher and a sympathetic judge puts him under house arrest instead of sending him to prison.
Constrained by an ankle tag that keeps him within 100 yards of his house, Kale soon discovers that spying on the neighbours is far more interesting than making Twinkie sculptures. Before long, Kale’s binoculars are trained on new neighbour Ashley, a hot blonde with a penchant for skimpy bikinis and frequent dips in her pool. The romantic subplot that develops between Ashley and Kale is predictable, tedious, and best ignored.
More interesting are Kale’s suspicions about another neighbour, Robert Turner, who may or may not be a serial killer. Instead of calling the police or voicing his concerns to a responsible adult, Kale and his friends start following Turner, even breaking in to his car and garage to look for incriminating evidence. As things get out of hand, the creeping sense of menace is replaced with straightforward violence, but because of the insufficient character development up to this point, it’s hard to really care about what happens to anyone involved.
As Kale’s mother, Carrie-Anne Moss is given little to do except look exasperated, while as best friend Ronnie and love interest Ashley, Aaron Yoo and Sarah Roemer are as compelling and charming as driftwood. David Morse is suitably sinister as Turner, and does as much as he can with an underwritten part. The film is really a showcase for Shia LaBoeuf and he proves more than capable of carrying a film; he’s a likeable and charismatic screen presence, and a performer of great potential. His forthcoming appearance in the new Indiana Jones film will propel him to an even greater level of attention, but on this evidence, the hype is justified. Disturbia is a mediocre film elevated by a star-in-the-making performance from LaBoeuf.
Review by Catherine Leopold
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