Disturbia (2007) Film Review
Disturbia (2007) ⭐️⭐️⭐️.
Big, 17 Again, and Like Father, Like Son. Deep Impact, and Armageddon. Bicentennial Man, and A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Themes and concepts regularly repeat themselves in cinema, drawing inspiration from past pictures and showing them in a new light is something very common. This is what Disturbia does, with the plot from Hitchcock’s Rear Window.
Disturbia is like that one guys younger brother, who nobody really knows because he’s not as cool as the older brother. But he still manages to have at least a few friends who would play with him from time to time. Rear Window being that older brother.
Alfred’s Rear Window is truly one of my favourite films of all time, and this reason is possibly why I enjoyed this feature so much. You could argue that this is just a cheap knock off that would never get to the same level of the Hitchcock masterclass, and for this reason it shouldn’t have been made. But personally I think it’s refreshing to add a modern day spin to it, and often doing this is valid when the film is still very enjoyable.
This reboot takes a modern approach to the tale by sticking Shia LaBeouf under house arrest, whilst serving under this solitude he witnesses strange goings-on with his neighbours. You get this 17 teen year old kid, whom whilst still grieving the loss of his father gets in trouble at school by punching a teacher, thankfully a sympathetic judge sees 3 months of house arrest as a fit punishment.
For days, he takes advantage of his punishment by watching TV, and playing video games right up until the point his mother says enough by cutting the cable to the TV. Eventually, after a time spent moping he decides to do constructive things around the house, such as getting a set of binoculars, setting up a surveillance camcorder to spy on the neighbors, and setting up a perimeter to where he can’t go anywhere to walk past the mailbox.
To prepare for this role LaBeouf actually took the liberty to meet with people who were also on house arrest, and proceeded to lock himself in a room to prepare for the role. Similar to what Heath Ledger did to prepare for his role as the Joker. For many actors, they could just simply take the role and it wouldn’t have that feel to it. But for LaBeouf to actually get in the correct mindset, and make us believe that his character is like any of us that can’t go anywhere is very impressive. A film quite fitting to watch under the current circumstances.
The acting from the cast was actually surprising good. The film features Shia LaBeouf, David Morse, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Sarah Roemer. LaBeouf was commendable as Kale. I never fully sympathised with him and his actions, but he was likeable enough for me to invest into his character and route for him from the start.
There’s some actually great camera work and cinematography shown here and the script by Christopher Landon and Carl Ellsworth, has some of that tongue-n-cheek humor that he’s become known for. Especially the way how the pairs writing and Caruso’s direction creates this often suspenseful mystery that personally had me interested all throughout its duration. Not to mention the fact that the soundtrack is impeccable.
I really liked the direction D.J. Caruso took for this film. I’ve seen a few of his films like Taking Lives and Eagle Eye. Caruso has an incredible talent for building the suspense in times you weren’t expecting there to be any, this is brilliantly displayed in this film.
I’ve read on numerous sources that he and LaBeouf watched Rear Window, Straw Dogs, The Conversation, and just to mix the genres together, Say Anything, just before they started filming Disturbia. When you watch this film, you can genuinely see where they have taken inspiration from each of these and put it in play. 4 films compiled into one, and it does honestly work well.
The script from Carl Ellsworth and Christopher Landon was overall well rounded, balanced and written. I feel that Landon is mostly known for having a soft spot to show romance and humor in horror flicks, in turn stretching the range of emotions you feel when watching making the scarier scenes more so. Whilst Ellsworth is known for bringing a realistic side into these suspenseful situations. So it was actually really interesting to see how these 2 writers came together to make a film, and put their own spin on a tale inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s classic suspenseful film!
All in all, while you can easily pinpoint and come with many flaws, as a teen thriller-comedy, this is definitely of high quality and one you can thoroughly enjoy. If you go with the right mindset, you will be in for a good time.
