DISTURBIA [?] Not Much. But a Pretty Good Little Picture. It'll Pass the Time.
Written: Apr 13 '07 (Updated Apr 16 '07)
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: LeBoeuf, Roemer, Morse, Yoo. Caruso's direction. Rogier Stoffer's multi-media cinematography. Jim Page's appropriate editing.
Cons: Cliches and conventional solutions mar the last half hour of the picture.
The Bottom Line: DISTURBIA is what used to be called an ordinary programme film, but exposition, imaginative photography and editing, plus the warmth and likability of the cast make the picture enjoyable.
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| macresarf1's Full Review: Disturbia |
When Daniel Brecht (Matt Craven) and his 16 year-old son Kayle (Shia LeBoeuf) are driving back to LA from a "bonding" fishing trip in the Sierras, through no fault of their own, they are cut off on the mountain highway; there is a wreck; and Dad is killed. Kayle was at the wheel, and a year later, the formerly out-going, easy-to-like teenager is still brooding guiltily over the loss of his father. An out-of-sorts Spanish teacher, "Senor" Sanchez (Rene Rivera), one day inadvertently refers to the father while dressing him down in class, and gets "popped" in the eye by Kayle.
The result is that what's thought a violence-prone teenager is restricted by court order to about the thousand square feet of his house and yard, assured by a sensor strapped to his ankle. His Mom, Julie Brecht (Carrie-Anne Moss; the MATRIX movies), has no time to dote over him. She has had to go to work to support him, and is looking to sell the house, so Kayle is left to mope, eat, play video games, and watch TV.
Bored, as only unmotivated teenagers may become, he commences to spy on the neighbors with his father's collection of binoculars and night goggles, something he would never have thought of otherwise:
Mr. and Mrs. Carlson have a maid service, it seems, and Mr. Carlson is having sex with her. Another family, the Greenwoods, have small boys who are regularly watching a porno site on TV. Then, there is Mr. Turner (David Morse), who hangs out at clubs, and mows the lawn all the time. Finally, most importantly, a beautiful step-daughter, Ashley (Sarah Roemer), just his age, has come to live with the family next door. Kayle's bedroom looks down on their swimming pool.
Several questions rise in Kayle's mind:
Is it any of his business that Mr. Carlson is humping the maid?
Should he inform Mom Greenway (Cindy-lou Atkins) across the street that her children are looking at naughty movies that they don't really understand?
Why does Mr. Turner mow his lawn so much, or come in and out all night?
And how may he meet Ashley, given the restrictions placed upon him?
It does not help that his court appointed counselor, control officer, Ms. Parker (Viola Davis) believes only in tough love and the red/green letters of the law, or that the chief patrolman on his case, Guitierrrez (Jose Pablo Cantillo), is a cousin of Teacher Sanchez. Nor that Kayle is taunted by other kids in the neighborhood, who put burning sacks of excrement on the Brecht's porch and pelt him with rotten eggs when he comes to the door.
Fortunately, he has his school pal, Ronnie (Aaron Woo), a spike-haired Asian lad, who brings him pizza, loads of a neat video equipment, reconnoiters, and shares a healthy interest in Ashley, next door. She is no simple-minded babe in the swimming pool, and she soon is hanging out with the guys.
DISTURBIA begins to move at a leisurely 40 minutes in; after Kayle hears a report that a girl has been abducted in a blue car with a dented left front fender. Mr. Turner drives a blue car, and Kayle suddenly notices it has a dented front fender, the left one.
From that point, the film becomes a conventional halloween bag of tricks and cliches. You notice, does not David Morse's Mr. Turner, with his hair tied back, look a lot like Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lector? Isn't the plot really that of Alfred Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW? Aren't Geof Zaneli's angst-laden arpeggios copying Bernard Herrmann's PSYCHO score near the end? Didn't Robin Tunney play a female Kayle in the Bay Area set CHERISH? Wasn't DISTURBIA done a bit better in the ignored and forgotten sleeper, Bryan Singer's APT PUPIL (1998)?
In fact, quite brilliantly focussed on the insidious nature of voyeurism in that film?
Indeed.
Still, Carrie Anne Moss, David Morse, Aaron Yoo, and especially Shia LeBoeuf with newcomer, Sarah Roemer prove to be engaging performers. By the time, the old bodies begin to fall out of closets, we have come to believe in the natural characterizations of the main players. The odd plot hole or two are bridged by Rogier Stoffer's varied filming techniques, enhanced by Editor Jim Page' cleverness, and Director D.J. Caruso guides the picture to a conclusion that, cliched or not, gives us a warm feeling of having been entertained.
DISTURBIA is, I promise, better than sitting, looking at a blank wall.
That can't be said for a lot of mass-marketed pictures, these days.
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UPDATE: April 16, 2007 -- On the basis of the weekend box office success of this rather ordinary little movie, Dreamworks has announced that Shia LeBoeuf will be offered a co-starring role with Harrison Ford in the next Indiana Jones picture, presumably as his son.
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CHERISH -- Finn Taylor's picture imprisoned the heroine in a similar court-required "bracelet." That picture lost its nerve, too, near the end, but I thought Robin Tunney's career would prosper, but it seems to be moldering.
http://www.epinions.com/content_65658588804
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Date Movie
Viewing Method: Press Screening
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Plot
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Epinions.com ID:
macresarf1
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 - Top 100 |
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Location: San Francisco, Ca.
Reviews written: 563
Trusted by: 378 members
About Me:
11/7/09: Another Bloody November.
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