Disturbia - July 6, 2007

Her perspective: Must See

Synopsis: Kale (Shia LaBeouf) has a life most teenagers would envy. He spends his days endlessly playing video games, surfing the net, eating junk food and watching cable. He has complete free reign of the house, and a beautiful young hottie named Ashley (Sarah Roemer) has just moved in next door. There's only one problem - he's not allowed to leave the house. Kale's under court-ordered house arrest for three months, and if he takes one step beyond a 100-foot perimeter of the house, his next confinement will be in a real prison, and jail cells don't have video games or cable. Life hasn't always been like this for him. A year ago, Kale and his mom (Carrie-Ann Moss) and dad were a tight-knit, happy family. Then his father was killed in a car accident, for which Kale feels somewhat responsible. The trauma has had long-lasting psychological effects. The once outgoing young man is now shut down and withdrawn. When an insensitive teacher brings up his father, Kale loses it and punches him out. Only the intercession of his mother kept him out of jail. Now he's going stir crazy in his own house while his mother tries to keep things together by working day and night. As the walls start to close in, Kale starts to notice the world outside. With some secondhand surveillance equipment, he begins spying on his neighbors, most prominently Ashley, who soon catches on to him. To his surprise, however, she becomes interested in his stakeout hobby. What starts out as a game turns deadly serious when Kale and Ashley begin to suspect that one of their neighbors (David Morse) may be an elusive serial killer. But who's going to believe them? It may just be their imagination, or they may have stumbled across a secret that might cost them their lives. After all, even killers have to live next-door to someone...

Review: This was a good thriller - very suspenseful. The actors did a wonderful job and all were very believable. The story line started out a little slow, but I think that was necessary to give the audience enough background to set up the main events. The script was very well written and the photography was very effective. There were some camera angles that really grabbed me and pulled me in. I don't think any detail was overlooked. Great movie overall, although a little predicatable as most thrillers are nowadays.