A pleasure to watch...Suspense,Thriller

Rating: 8/10 (28 August 2007)

Unlike, say, "Smokin Aces", "Disturbia" manages its elements well and it's a pleasure to watch. This is because DJ Caruso is an intelligent, effective guy who delivers. He's not the most inventive director out there but, and this is a compliment, "Disturbia" with someone more inventive directing, would have been another movieA worse movie.
However, after some very disturbing (matches with the title) couple of scenes, Kale (Shia LaBeouf) finds himself in the situation of 'house arrest', which is not good for any teenager. The monotony is boring but well managed, with scenes like Kale marking his territory because, if he goes ten meters away from his house, a device he wears goes red and the police come running. Then Ronnie (Aaron Yo) comes along, and they discover Ashley (model turned actress Sarah Roemer), and they sense something wrong about a neighbor (David Morse)And they start watching.
Once this basic premise is established, things start flowing. More than once, the storyline turns repetitive, but we don't mind because "Disturbia" doesn't play games. Christopher Landon's story and his script alongside Carl Ellsworth don't take us for fools by surprising us unnecessarily, but they make sure we enjoy the ride. In other words, the film has no twist but justifies its killings and the amount of gore.
This amount of gore, however, is a trick; because the scary thing is in the unexpected images and score (the prolific Geoff Zanelli), not in the visual blood. The movie is PG-13 but it generates more jumps than so many R rated stuff. Again, this is the director; and that's not the only thing he does well (false perception)During one moment, everything is dark and a light is turned on; try to remember a moment like that and tell me if that's shot is not perfect. Also the sense of timeWhen a cop is walking down a hall and the killer is haunting someone, the cameras change several times, but they are both moving; because it is how it is and time in film shouldn't stop.
Another thing that "Disturbia" excels at (and that's why it's better than good), which also has to do with false perception, is in not giving you what you want. If you are the kind of person that likes to guess what the next scene is like, "Disturbia" will mess with you, because when you're expecting something, it will put a cut to black and you won't have it; but you'll feel like the movie knew you were expecting it.
I can't forget that the work of the cast is a big part of "Disturbia's" success. At this point, I still don't know if LaBeouf's talent is for real. But he is convincing, his voice is powerful and I respect him because he always gets to kiss some gorgeous women. Women like Sarah Roemer, who, for our luck, can act. And Aaron Yo is very funny; and Carrie Anne Moss, who plays LaBeouf's mom, is full of grace; and David Morse is one of the creepiest guys in cinema when he wants to...Guess what? In "Disturbia" he really wants to.