Watching Shia LaBeouf evolve and grow as an actor has been a real pleasure for me. I have to admit I enjoyed his childhood role on "Even Stevens" and, while I'd much rather see the series's Christy Carlson-Romano in more challenging roles, Shia was half that show's draw. Since then most of LaBeouf's characters have been similar to Louis Stevens - fast talking (although not as fast thinking), sarcastic characters who are generally so good it makes viewer's teeth hurt (see: Transformers).
Thankfully, LaBeouf breaks out of that model with Disturbia. Here his character maintains an underlying aggression, tied to the death of his father in the first part of the movie. Kale and his dad enjoy a day of fishing and father-son bonding, but on the drive home they are in a horrific accident and Kale's dad dies. A year later the boy still hasn't come to grips with the death, visible in his declining grades and a waning relationship with his mother. When a teacher pushes Kale, he punches back, landing him with a Martha Stewart prison sentence: house arrest. With nothing else to do, Kale begins to take surveillance of his neighborhood, developing an interest in the new girl next door, and a suspicion of the neighbor on the other side, who bears a resemblance to recent reports of a potential serial killer.
For his part, Shia provides a convincing portrayal of a teenage kid angry with the hand life has dealt him. The anger isn't overt, but it's almost always present; presented like a skillful actor. Kale is a better thinker than other characters, looking at things a little more logically and having plenty of time to think things through. There are a few instances of LaBeouf breaking into his trademark speech pattern, trying to quick talk things, but for the most part they are absent and this is a solid new character type for LaBeouf.
Comparisons are inevitable to Rear Window, the Hitchcock classic that also involves a homebound voyeur discovering a murderer in his midst. The truth is, the two couldn't be more different while still sharing that plot device. Rear Window is filled with a tangible suspense throughout most of the picture, something that is almost wholly absent here. Instead the first half of Disturbia is spent developing the relationship between Kale and new neighbor Ashley (Sarah Roemer) - a much more attractive subject for Kale's neighborhood spying. The relationship removes almost all of the threat of the murderer plot for a sizable part of the movie.
Once the murderer plot gets going, the movie starts to deter from its own setup. Completely a third-person narrative fixed on Kale, the movie starts to show the audience things Kale can't see in order to better set up the suspense. It's an incredibly disappointing move that removes any suspense that had built by that time. What good is keeping Kale homebound and telling the movie through his voyeurism if the narrative is suddenly going to let the audience in on things he doesn't know' Now with the audience more aware than its protagonist, the movie does its best to wrap things up as quickly as possible. I'm sure director D.J. Caruso thought that would help keep the suspense level up, but good suspense can be held for ages (or at least what feels like it) if created properly.
Although Disturbia shows some growth for Shia LaBeouf as an actor, its nowhere near the picture it could have been. It's an enjoyable little tale, but there isn't much that passes for thrills or suspense to be found other than the artificial jump moments so popular in teenage thrillers these days. Attempting to be something better, Disturbia just isn't that disturbing.
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Disturbia - DVD Review
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