Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
4/16/07
Most Hollywood movies take
whatever interesting, possibly even unique, story hook they've got and
execute it as dictated by one of a dozen or so familiar genre formulas
movie fans could recite by heart. Not, as Jerry Seinfeld once said,
that there's anything wrong with that. Formulas, for the most part,
exist because they work. They're satisfying and fun and most movies
that defy them ultimately do so to their detriment (a good writer can play
by the rules, while it takes a great one to break them successfully).
But one interesting way to make a familiar story new is to take two totally
different formulas and run them on parallel tracks during the same movie.
That's exactly what happens in Disturbia, which is both the umpteenth
unofficial remake of Hitchcock's classic Rear Window and a John
Hughes-style romantic comedy.
Traumatized by the death
of his father (Matt Craven) in an auto accident while he was behind the
wheel, high school student Kale (Shia LaBeouf) goes into a downward spiral
that ends with him assaulting one of his teachers. Sentenced to three
months of house arrest over summer vacation, Kale has no company but his
mom Julie (Carrie-Anne Moss), goofball friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo)... and
the people he can see out his window. Sure, there's the usual adulterers
and troublemaking kids, but he's particularly interested in Ashley (Sarah
Roemer), the hot young girl who just moved in next door, and Mr. Turner
(David Morse), a secretive man down the block who just might be that serial
killer the news keeps talking about. When Ashley catches Kale watching
her, she shows up on his doorstep and finds the “investigation” into Mr.
Turner's activities an amusing distraction from her troubled home life.
Soon she and Ronnie are breaking into his house and car looking for clues
while Kale coordinates from home. It's a fun summer adventure, until
they find out that Mr. Turner is watching them right back.
There isn't a lot new about
Disturbia
except its' genre-blending chemistry experiment, but it's an experiment
that works quite well. The teen romance and goofy comedy make this
feel like a world where Mr. Turner really could be innocent, while the
serial killer plot helps to keep the angst from becoming overwhelming (well,
most of the time...). Because each formula gets only half the time
it ordinarily would to play out, some things do feel underdeveloped (Craven
makes such a strong impression in his two scenes that I'd have liked to
see a better period put on Kale's guilt over his death), but the plot doesn't
drag even though the first half's pace is pretty leisurely. Director
D.J. Caruso executes very effectively, delivering a quality, albeit mildly
twisted, romance and some nice thrills. The movie makes above-average
use of current technology, both in the ways video cameras, cell phones,
etc. make it easier for the kids to spy on their neighbor and in the way
it assigns ring tones to different characters and then uses them to good
effect. Product placement (Xbox and iTunes get prominent shout-outs)
abounds, but the name brands actually add a layer of authenticity because
gadgets mean so much to the characters. I also liked the movie's
gift for calling attention to the location of people, places and objects
it will need later without making it obvious.
The Rear Window plot
is so durable because of our conflicted feelings on the subject of privacy.
While we treasure our own, we tend to be suspicious of other people's,
and Mr. Turner's repeated desire “to be left alone” so clearly means he's
hiding something. It's a nice addition to the voyeuristic
story to have the hero's love interest start out as another stranger he's
spying on from afar. When Kale spills his guts to Ashley about all
the things he loves about her that he's seen through his binoculars, she
says it's “either the creepiest or the sweetest thing anyone's ever said
to me.” Of course, it's both. After all, we all want to be
noticed... by the people we want to notice us.
While he's not on-screen
all that much, the movie belongs to Morse, one of our best character actors,
who wasted much of the last year on TV playing a lousy character on House.
His huge physical stature allows him to loom over the kids in just the
way that An Adult should, and he plays Mr. Turner's dangerously calm bemusement
at being a suspect to perfection. You can see the wheels turning
in his head as he chooses just the right words to send his message to the
junior sleuths without giving anything away. Next Big Thing LaBeouf
makes an adequate leading man: given that Kale isn't the easiest
guy to sympathize with on paper, he's probably doing an even better job
than it seems. He's got good chemistry with Roemer, who hits the
right notes to make me buy Ashley as the kind of girl who'd appreciate
being watched without coming off as a skank. Moss is fine but mostly
wasted (what ever happened to her career anyway?) as Kale's Mom.
On the other hand, I'd like to think Ronnie is intended as some kind of
homage to the stereotypical “horny Asian dude” sidekicks of the 80's, but
either way he's an awful character who veers wildly between unfunny comic
relief and wild-eyed terror. Plus, at a key moment late in the game
does something totally, inexplicably stupid for no apparent reason other
than to distract Kale at a moment when his eyes really need to be on the
window. Yoo could be Anthony Hopkins and still do nothing with the
character, but from what's on display here, he's not exactly Anthony Hopkins.
I'm probably a little old
to fully appreciate Disturbia's charms (the sequence where Kale
disrupts Ashley's party by blaring bad music out his window was WAY too
Dawson's
Creek for anyone over 16 to endure), and I'm sure it's an even bigger
kick for its' target audience of easily spooked teens. But this skillfully
executed thriller should entertain movie fans of all ages. As John
Hughes knew so well, who doesn't wanna see a couple of cute kids end up
together? And who doesn't look out their window, across the street,
and wonder... just what IS going on over there? And those two great
tastes happen to taste great together. |
