Movie Review: Disturbia

Rating: 6/10 (1 August 2007)

For a movie titled "Disturbia", it is not really disturbing, or should I say it is disturbingly undisturbed. When the tagline reads, "Every killer lives next door to someone", I am thinking toward a film that is suspenseful and thrilling.
So is Disturbia the movie starring Shia Labeouf a movie of such? It is disturbingly not, at least for the most part.
Kale (Shia Labeouf) is a typical teenager in a growing up phase. He is carefree, fun loving and shows a keen interest in the opposite sex, but all that is about to change. That change came when he loses his father in a car accident one vacation.
All that enthusiastic energy is depleted and things got worse when he lands himself 3 months of house arrest for punching his Spanish teacher.
What can a teenager do when he cannot even leave his house? He spends all his time playing video games and watching loads of entertainment on television of course. Great you'll think but only until his mum (Carrie-Anne Moss) decides that enough is enough because Kale is neglecting everything else. She cancels his Xbox, iTune and best of all cut off the wire to the television when Kale snaps at her sensitivity.
The boy will have to look for other things for entertainment and so he invents his own reality channel; he spies on his neighbours. One of whom is a hot and sexy girl, Ashley (Sarah Roemer), who has just moved in next door while the other is boring Robert Turner (David Morse) who mows his lawn twice a day. The focus of the movie will revolve around Kale's interest in the two, one with sexual curiosity and the other with suspicious animosity.
Kale suspects Mr. Turner to be a serial killer when a report hits the news that the suspect drives a blue Ford Mustang similar to that of his neighbour. With the help of best friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) and along with love interest Ashley, the trio will attempt to uncover the mystery behind Robert Turner.
The pace of the film is rather slow to begin with. I find myself questioning what kind of a movie am I really watching. Is this a comedy or a thriller? Director D. J. Caruso probably wanted it to be both. It felt like a swing most of the time, teasing with the possibility of suspense and thrill then suddenly shifting the momentum to comedic exposition. Disturbing, very disturbing.
The thing behind the suspicious Mr. Turner lacked depth. Many questions were left unanswered. It appears that the storywriters, Carl Ellsworth and Christopher B. Landon are more interested in making the romance work between Kale and Ashley rather than having the "who really is Mr. Turner?" work out. At least there was a climatic scene at the end to save it even if I thought it as being too convenient a plot to drop the curtains with. The murderer just messed up.
So "Every killer lives next door to someone"?
Try "Every hot girl lives next door to someone". That sounds more like it.