Disturbia (2007)

Disturbia is a rock solid suspense film that is both a homage to Hitchcock's Rear Window and Cameron Crowe's Say Anything... an odd combination to be sure, but it works to perfection. The story revolves around a teen named Kale (the excellent Shia LaBeouf) who, after an explosive opening to the film, ends up spiraling down a growingly dangerous teen delinquent path. On house arrest and forced to stay in his house for three months, Kale spends his hours looking out the windows, peering into the lives around him. He spots a new neighbor, the lovely Ashley (Sarah Roemer) on one side of his house and the menacing Mr. Turner (David Morse) on the other. With the help of his friend Ronnie (the hilarious Aaron Yoo) and the eventual assistance of Ashley, Kale comes to believe that Mr. Turner may actually be a serial killer.

LaBeouf is one of those rare, inventive, talented and natural actors that is believable in just about anything he does. He plays a variety of emotions, from new teen romance to the loss of a family member to suspicion to humor to fear... all without a single false note. The newcomer Roemer is spot on as the beautiful and flirtatious Ashley, who's both strong and troubled. Her interplay with LaBeouf is great Hollywood teen love at its best.

A special nod goes to Morse who is able to be both charming and scary at the same time. Since we, like Kale, are unsure of Mr. Turner's guilt or innocence, in every scene Morse has to achieve both potential guilt and innocence by his mannerisms and inflections, not giving away one way or another if he is indeed a bad person. You are both intimidated and empathetic with the man who simple likes his privacy.

Directed by D.J. Caruso, Disturbia is a very successful teen suspense thriller with strong, layered characters, real life teen angst and the unfortunate outcomes one might face when we interject ourselves into other peoples lives. Check it out. It's a good, fun flick.