Rear Window meets the 'burbs

Rating: 6/10 (15 April 2007)

The opening tragedy in Disturbia hit me like a head-on crash (wink wink nod nod). When the film opens with Kale (Shia LaBeouf) and father Daniel (Matt Craven) fly fishing in a remote river, I settled in for a slow start to what will eventually end up being a Rear Window-ish type thriller as advertised in the television spots. So there I was, nestled in my chair, comfortable, with my fingers interlocked with my date expecting a slow start to the introduction of our main characters.
Then it happens, and whammo  an expected heart thump that threw my hand back into my lap so that the Misses could put her hands over her eyes. Welcome to Disturbia, the new film by D.J Caruso (no, not David) who is better known around these parts for his television series direction than his big screen efforts.
Disturbia is an ode to Hitchcock's Rear Window (whether it wants to garnish the comparison or not) that is taunt, fun and exciting even if it offers us nothing new.
The premise is set when Kale pops his Spanish teacher after a comment is made about his father. This results in Kale being put under house arrest for three months that includes an ankle bracelet that alerts the local authorities if he strays further than 100 feet away from the monitoring system.
House arrest is something that most high school brats would welcome with open X-Boxes. Between the cable television, the porn and the constant parade of video games being thrown into the big screen television, it is a dream come true for the underachiever.
But when party pooper 'mom' steps up to the plate and hits a triple off the right field fence by cutting the cable to the television and cutting the internet options, Kale passes time by watching the neighbors and coming up with interpretations based on his observations (think Tom Hanks in the 'burbs without the humor).
At first, it is just simple suburbia type behavior. People going to work, possible affairs occurring in their absences. Kale's new interest is in watching new neighbor Ashley (Sarah Roemer) as she takes dips in the pool, dresses and undresses in the bedroom and suntans on the roof of her home. Kale has so much fun in his adolescent perversion that he soon has friend Roonie (Aaron Yoo  think Harold of Harold & Kumar without the humor) coming over to partake in the perversion peeking.
As expected, Ashley catches the two horn dogs spying and soon she is re-enacting a scene from The Girl Next Door (without the humor) by coming over after a swim and confronting the two homeboys. Welcoming herself into the house and up to Kale's room, Ashley appreciates the snooping on the unsuspecting neighborhood and soon adds fuel to the rumor fires  especially in regards to neighbor Mr. Turner (David Morse, acting like David Morse without the humor).
It would seem that Mr. Turners actions are just a tad bit suspicious and recent news about the disappearances of a young female leads the three peepers to connect dots that may or may not be relevant.
These suspicions lead Kale, Roonie and Ashley into full Magnum P.I. mode where they follow Mr. Turner, break into his house and investigate a la Cody Banks (with more humor).
Is Mr. Turner a killer or is he just a strange old man that fits the clues for convenience? Well, without revealing more than the trailers already suggest, Kale and the Gang (like Kool & the Gang only cooler) fight time, the law and even an aggressively irate Turner in an attempt to solve the crime and put an end to his possible reign of terror.
Disturbia is one of those movies that has been stripped from countless other films from both the thriller/suspense and the teenage coming of age type genres yet still works on many levels as it maintains a taunt schedule and still keeps the thrills and humor coming at a pace quicker than a Johnny Cochrane defense.
By the time we get to the action packed ending we are engrossed in the mystery ourselves and we duck with every swing of a bat and swish of a blade. When Mr. Turner goes off, we root for the good guys and luckily we are paid back in our investment with characters that seem smart enough to make the right moves (i.e. running from the bad guy instead of towards him) in an attempt to ultimately survive the night. Even the underused Carrie-Anne Moss acts like a mother would and should if put into the circumstances that eventually will put her in peril.
The ending of Disturbia is interesting if not a bit of a stretch in comparison to the rest of the film, but hell, if a guy is going be accused of killing women I will be damned if we don't get an ending that concludes in a dark and dank basement.
None of the above makes Disturbia a classic, but it does rank up there with Red Eye of last year as a film that delivers the goods even if the goods are pre-packaged.
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