Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954) was a deliberate commentary on voyeurism and the human desire to watch others. Using the iconic and beautiful Grace Kelly highlighted Hitchcock's own obsession with blonde women in particular and also thrust the audience into the spotlight of our own voyeuristic tendencies. We sit in a darkened room, faceless in a crowd and watch people for 2 hours, keen to see them succeed or fail in their stories. Hitchcock ensure the Point of Views (POV) of the camera was largely from the protagonist, thus placing the viewer in the position of voyeur whether we liked it or not.
Hitchcock Done High Tech
Disturbia (2007), directed by D.J. Caruso, is a knowing nod to Hitchcock's classic but 'updated' to high tech society. The cast is still beautiful and the obsession with the female form bluntly obvious. Shia LaBeouf plays Kale Brecht and is confined to house arrest after assaulting his teacher. Wearing an electronic tag he is unable to go more than 100 feet from his home otherwise the tag sets of an alarm and it's off to court for the protagonist.
Having had his usual forms of entertainment removed by his mother, he decides to find others ways of amusing himself and starts to watch from his window, with the use of binoculars, his neighbours. This ensures his hormones are at full throttle as he spies on his new neighbour, the beautiful Ashley (played by Sarah Roemer). He soon forms a routine of watching her swimming, changing in her bedroom and so on. He watches the world around him and the lives of others day and night (although it seems no-one in the suburb actually close their curtains at night) and soon becomes engrossed in their stories. The story he becomes most obsessed with is that of his new neighbour Robert Turner (played by David Morse) who Kale suspects is a serial killer. Oddities and clues convince Kale that his neighbour is a killer and creates a tense exploration for answers.
Disturbia: An Adequate Thriller
Disturbia functions adequately as a thriller and understands fairly well the ideas behind voyeurism, but only scratches the surface on commenting on it. The filmmaker, like the characters, seems more preoccupied with the female form than the morality of spying on neighbours. The most significant commentary though does appear to be how the watched seem to enjoy being watched. Ashley, it transpires, is all too aware of her admirer's invasion of privacy and appears to revel in his 'hidden' stares. Unfortunately, these glimpses of what it means to be in a society where everyone is watching everyone else (and the questions this raises), is only touched on.
Shia LaBeouf is a very credible actor who can carry a film well. He provides excellent comic timing but is much more subtle than many young talents out there. It is his film really and where the film falls down is where it focuses. Style over content is the usual Achilles heel seen in many films and Disturbia looks very good and is rather slick, but it does lack substance. The cinematography is not particularly innovative and in fact, the camera fails to take characters' POV much of the time, even though it is a film on voyeurism. In short, Disturbia is a film worth watching but one that you may forget quickly. A nod to Hitchcock, yes, but a far from equal addition to the genre.
