Disturbia

Cinema review
Directed by D.J. Caruso
Starring Shia LaBeouf, David Morse, Sarah Roemer, Aaron Yoo, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Matt Craven
Release date 14 September 2007

Kale Brecht (LeBeouf) has hit rock bottom. A year after a family tragedy that he blames himself for, Kale assaults a teacher and is sentenced to three months house arrest. With his computer, TV and internet shut down by his mother (Moss), Kale entertains himself by spying on the neighbours, including new girl Ashley (Roemer) and Robert Turner (Morse), a quiet man who, Kale comes to suspect, may be hiding a terrible secret…

Riding in on the back of LeBeouf’s star-making turn in Transformers, this is a compact little thriller that starts very strongly. LeBeouf’s natural comic timing is replaced with a bleak, simmering rage that’s fascinating to watch and the first twenty minutes hint that things will get very dark, very quickly.

There’s a claustrophobic feel to the story, as Kale becomes fixated on Turner and comes to realise exactly how much trouble he may be in. As Turner, Morse is a huge, softly spoken and completely threatening presence in the film and as Kale is drawn inexorably closer to him, there’s a palpable air of doom to their scenes together.

Unfortunately, that tension is never consistent. The script is one half thriller, one half absolutely standard teen rom-com and the end result is a horribly uneven film that runs the gamut from subtle, nuanced menace to broad, teen-comedy and, finally, over the top horror. There are some good moments and some great performances, with Roemer in particular proving a pleasant surprise as far more than your average girl next door, but none of them can fully paper over the cracks.

Ultimately not as smart or dark as it initially promises, Disturbia is well directed, extremely well acted but never becomes more than the sum of its parts. Entertaining, but it could have been so much more. Alasdair Stuart