Disturbia

As a society, we like to watch. Otherwise we wouldn’t be tuning in by the millions to see Paris Hilton daintily prance out of jail with a victim’s look on her face. Otherwise summer television wouldn’t be made up largely of so-called reality shows where a contrived sense of the world is created in the name of lucrative riches for ordinary folks with Los Angeles agents. Otherwise there wouldn’t be thousands of websites where you get a glimpse into another person’s real world. Sometimes, such as the case with LonelyGirl15, the reality millions fell in love with turns out to be fake but we keep watching anyway.

We live in a time where media is at our fingertips. Technology is cheap and it’s everywhere, ready to catch our every move. But like a movie, the way you put those clips you capture together influences the way we construct our reality. That’s what D.J. Caruso explores in Disturbia, a thriller that has some grand ideas and solid spots, but ultimately falls into the trap of a gutless resolution.

After getting three months house arrest for decking his teacher, Kale (Shia LaBeouf) has a good sense of life in his suburban neighbourhood. With nothing to do, he takes to watching his neighbours through the lenses of his binoculars. On the one side of the house is the hot new girl in town, Ashley (Sarah Roemer), who has a dysfunctional family, likes to swim in skimpy bikinis and read on the roof. On the other side of the fence is the creepy mystery Mr. Turner (David Morse) who captures rabbits and has a longhorn skull hanging in his garage. After watching the news, Kale suspects Mr. Turner might be a psycho serial killer with a thing for redheads. Then again, it could be just one big Brady Bunch-esque misunderstanding.

Caruso does a good job building up Kale’s boredom early on, allowing the potentially preposterousness that ensues to at least have a foothold in the realm of both reality and fantasy. It’s at this point, with the story established, that the voyeuristic commentary really comes into play. If we are watching something, as opposed to experiencing it ourselves, we are creating a reality. We use inference and sometimes miss context, thus creating something new. It might be close to the truth; it might not be. That’s the new reality.

As he’s shown in Holes and Transformers, there’s no denying LaBeouf’s dorky charm. He does a good job at playing a geek at heart, but not going so far as to make him a nerd. He still maintains a certain cool factor that makes you want to experience the journey.

Towards the end, Disturbia does unravel into something not nearly as smart but that doesn’t stop the first two acts from being a slick little observation on the multiple levels of reality that surround us today.

Disturbia DVD Review

The film is shown in a nice enhanced widescreen format. The audio comes through clearly with a Dolby 5.1 Surround EX track in English and dubbed 5.1 tracks in French and Spanish. Optional subtitles are also available in all three languages.

As far as extras, there’s a solid mix of fairly standard stuff. On the commentary track there’s director D.J. Caruso chatting it up with stars Shia LaBeouf and Sarah Roemer over snacks, drink and chicken. It’s mostly back pats and making of bits and isn’t overly entertaining. There’s four deleted scenes totaling about five minutes and another minute’s worth of outtakes. “The Making of Disturbia” runs almost 15 minutes and explores not only the typical behind-the-scenes stuff but a little bit of the meaning behind it as well. Rounding out the disc are a music video for This World Fair’s “Don’t Make Me Wait”, a pop-up trivia track, photo gallery theatrical trailer and trailers for Stardust, Blades of Glory and Next.