Wednesday

This is the second part of my review of Disturbia. I mentioned before that the roles of the school friend or the girl were not both necessary. Perhaps I'd opt to omit the school friend, but maybe with a better actor it would've been ok. The girl, though, (as strangely in LaBeouf's earlier film Transformers) is really far too attractive. It's not believable that she's into books, or that she'll like him. The relationship happens too quickly. Her absence from the last five minutes, and her sudden unexplainable appearance slightly earlier, highlight her as a plot function rather than a genuinely necessary character. I did like it when he confronted her about her speed in conforming to high school society, however. As for the 'serial killer', I thought too much was revealed too soon. The music cues gives away a lot, and although the possibility that he's innocent wavers up and down until the end, you're never much in doubt. If this hadn't tried to be so mainstream, I think they could've played a lot more with the psychology of the situation. They had a lot to work with - not just him stuck at home, but also the idea of the replacement father figure. They hint at the idea of the Stockholm syndrome, but don't develop it. Hitchcock, you have to say, would've found more depth here - although this film dealt with teenagers, and had a modern indie soundtrack, it is deeply indebted to Mr H. Perhaps it would've been better if the characters were older, and less was explained to you. The final reveal is perhaps too extreme. There are too many moments of 'if he does that, why would he do this?' - 'plot holes' some people call them. Nonetheless, for its one hundred minutes I was engaged and, occasionally, on the edge of my seat.