Director D. J. Caruso's "Disturbia" is one of those films I wanted to hate - but I couldn't.
Screenwriters Christopher Landon and Carl Ellsworth have taken the premise of Alfred Hitchcock's suspense-filled classic "Rear Window" (1954) and updated it for a teenage, technology-obsessed audience. What "Disturbia" lacks in depth, it surprisingly nearly makes up for with fantastic timing and truly gripping suspense.
Kale (Shia LaBeouf) has been getting into trouble for the past year, ever since his father passed away in a nasty car wreck. When Kale goes too far and punches his Spanish teacher (Rene Rivera), he is sentenced to house arrest - complete with an ankle monitor - for summer vacation.
This doesn't seem too daunting until his mother (Carrie-Anne Moss) cuts off access to his X-Box live and iTunes, as well as the cable in his bedroom. Without these distractions, he becomes horribly bored - shown in a sequence backed by the appropriately placed System of a Down's "Lonely Day" - and tries to find some form of entertainment.
So, he looks out the window and his new hobby is born. He watches his new neighbors - especially their sexy teenage daughter, Ashley (Sarah Roemer). He also spies on a group of unruly pre-teens and Mr. Turner (David Morse), who oozes creepy vibes as he compulsively mows his lawn.
Whether due to cabin fever or a nose for detective work, Kale theorizes that Mr. Turner's car looks a bit like one that had been seen in connection with a local disappearance. Suddenly, house arrest is more like a game of "stake-out," in which his buddy Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) and Ashley - who, after realizing Kale was watching her, seems unrealistically comfortable with his voyeurism - sit around Kale's room and use surveillance equipment (supposedly, courtesy of some quirky relative of Ronnie's) to spy on Mr. Turner.
No one could accuse the characters in "Disturbia" of being multi-layered, but that doesn't make them boring. And with such shallow characters, the acting can't be bad. Moss' mom-on-her-last nerve and Morse's creepy-loner are the film's best performances.
Rated PG-13 for sequences of terror and violence, and some sensuality, "Disturbia" will do best as a date movie for teens, but it's certainly rent-worthy on merit of suspense alone.
Those who haven't seen "Rear Window" will probably enjoy "Disturbia" more without the comparisons - but since it borrows the concept without trying to remake the film, "Disturbia" manages to be much better than it should be.
Originally published in The Chronicle in April 2007 as Jade Lee Culberson
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