Disturbia – Film Review

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This is a great suspense film.

Directed by D.J Caruso and starring Shia LaBeouf (Transformers) and Carrie-Ann Moss (Trinity in The Matrix), this is an excellent thriller.

I’ll admit, I wasn’t sure about this one. There are so many thrillers out there that are all gore and no substance. This is not one of them.

The main plot is an updated version of Rear Window directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1954) which, according to Wikipedia, was based on a short story by Cornell Woolrich.

It starts with the main character, Kale, fishing with his father and then progresses to a car accident. A year later and Kale is under house arrest for punching his teacher and starts watching the neighbours out of boredom. It all seems normal at first until he notices that the car across the street fits the description of one used in several murders.

This could easily have turned tedious. A boy spending all day at home spying on his neighbours doesn’t sound like a great plot. Yet it works!

The intrigue builds up slowly but not too slowly. The pacing in this film is excellent with a good mix of tension and humour. There are points where you wonder if Kale is paranoid or if he’s right about his neighbour and David Morse (The Green Mile, Long Kiss Goodnight) gives a chilling performance of an eerily pleasant, sociopath.

It would have been a decent film to begin with, given the characterization and the building tension, but it’s enhanced all the more by the challenge of Kale’s electronic tag and the side-plots of Kale’s feud with local children, add a bit of humour to a gripping, interesting thriller.

Definitely worth a watch.