Disturbia

Until it runs off its rails in the third act, Disturbia teeters between strangely mesmerizing and strangely clumsy. At its center is a worthy examination of voyeurism, which has pervaded current popular culture in the form of reality TV and Internet video diaries. Less admirable is a familiar serial-killer plot in which a monster menaces clueless women, including the hero's mother.

The plot lurches in order to get Kale into tight spots: First Ashley is wonderful, then she's disloyal and superficial; Ronnie is helpfully tech-savvy, then he's an idiot; a local cop assigned to monitor Kale is adversarial. Still, the camerawork is clever (recurring close-ups and bad framing approximate Kale's untrained eye), and Kale suffers from both over-stimulation and privilege. Increasingly distracted by the sheer number of ways he's found to watch the violence and sex unfolding before him -- computer screen, cell phone, video camera, binoculars, even his own eyes -- Kale is eventually unable to respond coherently, although by that time the plot has gone loopy, too. But even as the many possibilities for spying are speeded up and multiplied, the movie's focus on the consequences of voyeurism remains relevant and riveting.