Themes: Voyeurs, Amateur Sleuths, High School Life
Main Cast: Shia LaBeouf, David Morse, Sarah Roemer, Viola Davis, Carrie-Anne Moss
Release Year: 2007
Country: US
Run Time: 104 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Salton Sea director D.J. Caruso travels from the shore to the suburbs for this suspenseful tale of a high-school senior who suspects that his neighbor is a notorious serial killer. Kale (Shia LaBeouf) is a high-school senior who has yet to come to terms with the fact that his father is gone, the tragic victim of a fatal accident. As Kale's mother (Carrie-Anne Moss) struggles to pay the bills by picking up extra shifts at work, her son's behavior grows increasingly erratic. When an altercation at school finds Kale placed under court-ordered house arrest, the homebound student teams with newly arrived girl-next-door Ashley (Sarah Roemer) to investigate the suspicious neighbor (David Morse) whom Kale believes to be an elusive and wanted serial killer. Their attentions focused intensely on the man they believe to be a murderous maniac hiding in broad daylight, Kale and Ashley trespass down a dangerous path while attempting to discern whether his suspicions are grounded in fact or just a combination of deep depression and suffocating cabin fever. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Review
As one of Alfred Hitchcock's best films and most delicious concepts, Rear Window has been primed for a modern reworking, beyond what it got when Christopher Reeve played the lead in a straightforward 1998 remake. Disturbia at first promises to be that satisfying update of the story, as the housebound protagonist swaps his wheelchair for an ankle bracelet, which will summon police cars if he strays beyond a certain radius. Everything about this setup works, from the whimsical notion that a home is anything but a prison for a teenager with SonyPlayStation to an opening that sets the events in motion with powerful immediacy. Shia LaBeouf's gifts of naturalism are on full display, reinforcing why he's considered one of the most promising leading men of his generation, and was cast in a succession of Hollywood's most anticipated summer blockbusters. But problems surface with the arrival of David Morse's nefarious neighbor, whose late-night activities look anything but wholesome through LaBeouf's binoculars. It's not that Morse doesn't have Raymond Burr's eerie presence -- in fact, Morse is capable of a chilling deadness that makes him quite an effective villain. The problem is that his behavior sabotages the credibility the rest of the film has worked to establish. Not only is he creepy in a way that would tip off anybody, but his crimes are executed with a total lack of shrewdness -- full of wild, murderous gesticulations in front of open windows. Perhaps that's the only way LaBeouf's Kale Brecht can witness them, but this was less problematic in Hitchcock's day, when audiences didn't have the sophisticated forensic understanding of the criminal mind that today's viewers have absorbed almost by osmosis. Disturbia has a basic tautness and some decent set pieces, but not surprisingly, it falls well short of the Rear Window standard. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Aaron Yoo - Ronnie; Jose Pablo Cantillo - Officer Gutierrez; Matt Craven - Daniel Brecht; Brandon Caruso - Greenwood Boys; Luciano Rauso - Greenwood Boys; Daniel Caruso - Greenwood Boys; Kevin Quinn - Mr Carlson; Suzanne Rico - News Anchors; Kent Shocknek - News Anchors; Rene Rivera - Señor Gutiérrez; Amanda Walsh - Minnie Tyco; Charles Carroll - Judge; Gillian Shure - Turner's Club Girl; Dominic Daniel - Policeman; Lisa Tobin - Big Wheel Mom; Cindy Lou Adtkins - Mrs Greenwood
Credit
Douglas Cumming - Art Director, Dana Mackey - Associate Producer, Kwame Parker - Associate Producer, Deborah Aquila - Casting, Tricia Wood - Casting, Bruce Fowler - Conductor, Marie-Sylvie Deveau - Costume Designer, James M. Freitag - First Assistant Director, D.J. Caruso - Director, Conrad Palmisano - Second Unit Director, Drew Ann Rosenberg - Second Unit Director, Jim Page - Editor, Ivan Reitman - Executive Producer, Tom Pollock - Executive Producer, Jason "Onion" Green - Hair Styles, Douglas Dresser - Location Manager, Bruce Fowler - Composer (Music Score), Geoff Zanelli - Composer (Music Score), Jennifer Hawks - Musical Direction/Supervision, Rene Dashiell-Kerby - Makeup, Kim Marks - Camera Operator, Paul Babin - Camera Operator, Tom Southwell - Production Designer, Rogier Stoffers - Cinematographer, Joe Medjuck - Producer, E. Bennett Walsh - Producer, Jackie Marcus - Producer, Richard Reynolds - Set Designer, Randall D. Wilkins - Set Designer, Mark Ulano - Sound/Sound Designer, Michael Babcock - Sound/Sound Designer, Manny Perry - Stunts Coordinator, Robert Huberman - Unit Production Manager, E. Bennett Walsh - Unit Production Manager, Christopher Landon - Screen Story, Christopher Landon - Screenwriter, Carl Ellsworth - Screenwriter, Rodney Taylor - Second Unit Director Of Photography, Paul Hughen - Second Unit Director Of Photography, Michael J. Walker - Second Unit Camera, Darin Moran - Second Unit Camera, Mark Freund - Visual Effects Supervisor, Abigail Callahan - Post Production Supervisor, Damiana Kamishin - Production Coordinator, Arthur Shippee - Properties Master, Steve Pederson - Re-Recording Mixer, Brad Sherman - Re-Recording Mixer, Michael Babcock - Re-Recording Mixer, Anna Rane - Script Supervisor, Robert D. Schroer - Second Assistant Director, Darrell D. Pritchett - Special Effects Coordinator, Robert Corey Pritchett - Special Effects Coordinator, Michael Babcock - Supervising Sound Editor, Rafael E. Sanchez - Chief Lighting Technician, John Stone - Construction Coordinator, Linda Matthews - Costumes Supervisor, Kristina Vogel - Key Make-up, Cary. L. Walken - Key Make-up, Maria Mantia - Second Unit Assistant Director, Marianna Elias - Second Unit Makeup, Pacific Title & Art Studio - Visual Effects, Maria Nay - Set Decorator
