Disturbing Behaviour Film Review
In the town of Cradle Bay, nothing is what it seems. A group of pupils called the Blue Ribbons, comprised of straight-A students and the social elite enjoy a prized position. Social misfits and unruly pupils mysteriously turn over a new leaf after joining this group after being signed up by worried parents or "invited" to join. A new student, Steve Clark(James Marsden) arrives in town and things go from bad to worse when one of his new friends (Nick Stahl) is signed up for the group.
Starting up as looking like a bad sci-fi film, Disturbing Behaviour, immediately lowers your expectations of a good film as a predictable starting scene unfolds. The entire film has that "straight to video" feel about it, and in fact is almost indistinguishable from a large number of other releases, probably because it is almost identical to "The Stepford Wives". The cinematography is average at best and the script is fairly linear with no unexpected twists or turns and the ending is obvious before the film is even half way through. The dialogue is lacking in style and passion and the supporting characters are all either extremely annoying or one-dimensional. In fact this film would not be worth watching, save for two reasons: Katie Holmes and James Marsden.
With another actor playing Steve Clark the film could have been bad indeed. James Marsden's acting skills carry the entire film and until Katie Holmes's character Rachel Wagner is introduced is one of the few interesting things. Only when James and Katie are on screen together does the film start to have bite, Katies character being an almost polar opposite from her role as Joey in dawson's Creek, a smouldering school misfit with an attitude. Unfortunately Katie has few lines and what she does have are functional at best. The film could have been improved immeasurably with the addition of some witty sarcasm and put-downs from Katie's character, instead of merely functional dialogue. Only James Marsden's character has some depth and realism to him and he gets the best of the dialogue.
Overall the film is below average, but it is entertaining due to the efforts of James Marsden and Katie Holmes. I would say it is worth a watch, just to see the superior acting talent inherent in James and Katie. I wouldn't go out and buy it though.
-Reviewed by Cam (aka Mr Chaosium)
