Serial

Rating: 9/10 (15 April 2007)

Shia LaBeouf is fascinating as a teenager, who loses his father in an automobile accident after a fishing expedition together. This, of course, disturbs Shia very much. As Shia recovers, he loses concentration in his Spanish class and is embarrassed by his teacher. Shia then lashes out physically and is arrested and taken to juvenile court, which sentences him to three months of house arrest with an ankle bracelet monitor that restricts him to within 100 feet of his house. Shia is banned from using his usual video games and IPOD by his mother. So, Shia becomes bored and begins to spy on his neighbors with binoculars. And, one neighbor becomes suspected by Shia of being a serial killer.
The film does a good job of not only describing a typical teenager confined in his house but also the outward normalcy of David Morse as a serial killer in a suburban setting. Dennis Rader might have been the model for David Morse, who has a habit of binding his victims and then killing them. These separate themes of a bored teenager spying on his neighbors and a serial killer pursuing his gruesome work behind a veil of respectability come together, at the end of the movie, in a thrilling climax.
It is amusing, in this film, to see that, unlike most suburban neighborhoods, the residents of these houses seem to always be at home. And, most of the windows of the houses are wide open to peering eyes. But, for the most part, the film does communicate plausibility and resulting dramatic impact. Shia is a remarkable young actor, who inhabits his role well.