Worthwhile Suspenseful Saga

Rating: 8/10 (21 June 2007)

Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Studios have done a skillful job of updating the classic 1954 Alfred Hitchcock thriller "Rear Window" as a white-knuckled exercise in paranoia about three teenagers in jeopardy pitted against an intelligent but ruthless serial killer. Although this tense but entertaining new thriller with Shia LaBeouf, David Morse, and Carrie-Anne Moss does not cite the Hitchcock movie as its inspiration, anybody who has seen "Rear Window" will know from watching the previews for "Disturbia" (*** out of ****) that it recycles the predicament in the 1954 original with style and savvy. Basically, "Rear Window" dealt with an injured photographer confined to a wheel chair. The photographer, played by James Stewart, had nothing better to do during his recovery than stare out of his apartment window at his neighbors. Eventually, the shutterbug hero suspects that one of the tenants has killed a woman and carved her body up into little pieces. While "Two for the Money" director D.J. Caruso and scenarists Christopher Landon and Carl Ellsworth have created a wholly different set of circumstances, "Disturbia" is essentially still "Rear Window," but with teenagers and the 21st century surveillance technology at their disposal that the original lacked.
"Disturbia" opens serenely enough outdoors with Kale Brecht (Shia LaBeouf of "Constantine") and his father Daniel (Matt Craven of "Jacob's Ladder") up to their knees in a stream fishing for their dinner. Daniel uses this opportunity to bond with his son, but Kale is too embarrassed to confide in his father. Kale and Daniel are heading back home on the highway when they encounter a reckless driver careening across the road. Daniel dies in a horrendous accident, and Kale never really recovers from the traumatic ordeal. About a year later, Kale's Spanish teacher gives him a hard time in class, and our irate protagonist decks him with a right cross. A sympathetic judge sentences Kale to three months of house arrest. The authorities explain that the monitoring devise strapped to Kale's ankle will trigger its alarm if the youth strays beyond the confines of his parents' house. Initially, Kale has a difficult time adjusting to his captivity. Two kids across the street leave a flaming bag of fecal matter on Kale's front porch, and our hero stomps out the fire and then pursues the culprits. In the process, the alarm on his ankle monitor goes off and the cops arrest him. This occurs while Kale's new neighbor, Ashley (Sarah Roemer of "The Grudge 2"), is watching. Later, Kale and she become friends after she catches him spying on her with binoculars as she swims in her parents' pool in a bikini. After he learns about a serial killer in Los Angeles, Kale begins to notice that one of his neighbors, Mr. Turner (David Morse of "The Rock"), behaves in a suspicious manner. Kale enlists his high school buddy Ronnie (Aaron Yoo of "Things That Go Bump in the Night") to do his legwork. Ronnie sneaks over Kale's fence into Turner's garage and finds what he believes is a corpse. Turner shows up suddenly, and Ronnie scrambles to hide from Turner in Turner's house. Kale ignores the ankle monitor and breaks into Turner's house to save Ronnie, but the police arrive in time to arrest him again.
The best thing about "Disturbia" is David Morse's stone cold killer who seems to know what these nosy teenagers are up to every step of the way. Turner maintains his cool until the finale when all havoc breaks loose. Shia LaBeouf, who looks more and more like this generation's answer to John Cusack, makes a resourceful but sympathetic character. Like the wheel chair bound James Stewart in "Rear Window," LaBeouf's hero cannot step out of bounds without the police showing up at the drop of a hat to bust him. As his shapely but skinny next-door neighbor Ashley, Sarah Roemer basically recreates the role that Grace Kelly played in the original. Inexplicably, however, Ashley vanishes from the action in the last quarter hour and Kale's mom has to intercede for him. Meanwhile, Aaron Yoo provides the necessary comic relief. Poor Carrie-Anne Moss has been reduced to playing the thankless role of Kale's mother. You may remember that Moss portrayed the gravity-defying heroine in "The Matrix" trilogy that could charge full-tilt up walls and blast the daylights out of the badguys.
Altogether, "Disturbia" qualifies as a worthwhile suspenseful saga with enough surprises to keep you on the edge of your seat. Indeed, the audience that Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Studio is appealing to with this gripping thriller probably haven't seen "Rear Window" so they won't appreciate the efforts that Caruso and his writers have taken to pay homage to the Hitchcock film.