Disturbia (2007)

I had seen the trailer of the movie and found it appealing. Later I found that it is somewhat similar to Rear Window – the Hitchcock movie and is on the same lines; that made me go and see this movie.

It is the story of a young boy Kale (Shia LaBeouf) who is sentenced to 3 months of house arrest and finds ways to peep through his windows in neighbors' lives – one, the recently moved neighbor girl Ashley (Sarah Roemer) and another middle aged guy Mr.Turner (David Morse) who our young boy and his friend Ronnie (Aaron Yo) suspects as a killer. Is Mr.Turner a killer? Or this is just paranoia of our young gang? The Director D.J.Caruso – who has specialized in crime thrillers in past 4-5 movies, does a very decent job in keeping the audience engrossed in the narrative and unfolds the story slowly and nicely. The movie presents many aspects of drama, and takes us through a ride of varied sub-plots with good interest. There are a couple of minor annoying scenes – like the love aspect (quite unnecessary I thought, but may be required for today's young audiences) and the usual cliché of thriller movies. But overall the movie is entertaining.

Shia LaBeouf is not a great actor, but does a decent job, so does the Sarah Roemer, Aaron Yo and David Morse.

The camera work is excellent because it shows only that much which would make you eager to peep beyond the camera frame to see what is there – and that keeps you engaged. The music is okay.

Yes, the movie is not close to the classic Rear Window, but I should say that I liked the movie.

(Stars 6.75 out of 10)