Trinity as a Mom

Well, so much for the whole I'll-post-nearly-every-day plan. If I could come up with a reason why I'm not posting more it would be some sort of answer like I've had too much stuff on my mind to actually write about it. Which, of course, makes no sense. I started to write something yesterday but kept getting sidetracked. It didn't help that I was trying to write a little something on The Hoax (Well-done, but flat) but then I realized that I had very little to say about the movie. So, to try again, here's something on another film playing right now.

DISTURBIA-- Back when I was a kid in the early 80s there was a big re-release of the Hitchcock movies that Universal owned. My parents took me to see Rear Window and afterwards that actually apologized for taking me because they just assumed that I'd been really bored. Funny thing was, I actually really liked the movie. And all these years and many viewings of Hitchcock movies later, Rear Window remains one of my favorite Hitchcocks. How many kids in their early teens would be willing to sit through Rear Window today? I was weird.

I guess I'm supposed to hate Disturbia for cribbing the plot of Rear Window, but the truth is that it works better than it really has a right to. Shia LaBeouf is the kid sentenced to house arrest who begins to suspect something sinister is up with his neighbor, played by David Morse. The suburban setting brings to mind Joe Dante's underrated The 'Burbs and maybe even a little of Tom Holland's Fright Night, but ultimately Disturbia works as a neat little thriller. More than any comparison to Rear Window that could be made, the one truly depressing element of the film is Carrie-Anne Moss playing mom to Shia LaBeouf. Seeing Trinity as a mom is one thing, but mom to a teenager? Even if dialogue does refer to her as a "hot mom," when did that happen? Oh well.

Disturbia works as well as it does because it knows enough to focus on the characters and not jump too far into its plotline without letting us know them first. It's nothing spectacular, but you could do much worse. You have done much worse. And I'll get over the Trinity thing eventually.