Rear Window

The last movie I'll watch for my film class that I haven't seen before. Rear Window is really interesting because of how it's different from most movies. It could easily be made into a play. The entire movie takes place in Jimmy Stewart's apartment and the square behind it where he can look into the lives of his neighbors through their windows. Except for a few shots, the entire thing is filmed from inside one room. The focus is on acting and building tension. Because of the perspective, it's made more believable. Only a few people get significant actual screen time inside the apartment, a lot of the characters are only seen and heard from a distance. The cast works very well together and has good chemistry. Stewart is as excellent as he always is, he can handle any dialog and is a really likable guy.

The real crux of the story is the murder mystery. Stewart and his friends become increasingly suspicious of an insurance salesman, who they think murdered his wife. There is a balance going on as they keep discovering new things that sometimes support or refute the theory. They begin taking greater and greater risks to uncover the truth, and Alfred Hitchcock excels at creating tension while keeping the story within the realm of possibility. When you finally learn the truth, it's an odd moment, because a lot of the details are left unexplained. It's a good movie though, and it's gotten me interested in checking out some more work by Hitchcock.

What's interesting is we saw this not long after Disturbia came out. It's not exactly a remake, but it's basically the exact same idea. I haven't seen it, but it might be interesting to see how they handle it. I'm not sure how I feel about Shia LaBeouf. I like him, I guess, but I've yet to see him prove he can do something besides be goofy and actually act. He was decent in Holes, but it wasn't really that challenging a part, and he was just the sidekick in Constantine. Looking at his filmography on IMDb, I've actually seen him in a lot of movies. We'll see where his career goes from here.