Disturbia: Grade F

F

Disturbia (2007)

Shia Lebeouf, Sarah Roemer, Aaron Yoo. Director D.J. Caruso.

This is a horrible remake of Hitchcock’s Rear Window, for teens who presumably have seen neither the excellent original nor the mediocre Christopher Reeves remake. Lebeouf is a filthy rich teen under house arrest who uses binoculars and camcorders to spy on the neighbor girl (Roemer), and who begins to match clues on TV about a serial killer with another neighbor, leading to suspicion. For a while there is some tension as you wonder if he suffers from overactive imagination or whether he has discovered a real menace. But that thought quickly dissipates into slasher madness, which I guess teens like. This is a 45 minute story tops, the rest padding. Poor acting and directing are dominant, backed by undistinguished photography and music. The depiction of the teens is painfully pandering and stereotyped, yet conspicuously sanitized, having none of the sophistication of Harold and Kumar go to White Castle, or the insight of Napoleon Dynamite. In the opening segment there is an extremely well done car crash, although gratuitous to the story.