After the suicide of the teenager Allen Clark (Ethan Embry), his family decides to move from Chicago to the quiet Cradle Bay Island seeking a peaceful life for the siblings Steve (James Marsden) and Lindsay Clark (Katharine Isabelle). When Steve joins the local high-school, the outcast Gavin Strick (Nick Stahl) befriends Steve and introduces his also rejected friend Rachel Wagner (Katie Holmes) to the newcomer. Gavin exposes to Steve in the refectory the punks, the nerds and the different tribes of the school and he defends the weird theory that a sinister force changes the behavior of the annoyingly perfect "Blue Ribbons", a group of good students that wear identical jackets and gather in the Yogurt Shoppe. Further he tells that he had witnessed the blue ribbon Andy Efkin (Tobias Mehler) killing their schoolmate Mary Jo (Natassia Malthe) that is missing and a police officer, but the local Officer Cox (Steve Railsback) covered the murders. Steve does not believe in Gavin words, but when his friend is submitted to the treatment of Dr. Edgar Caldicott (Bruce Greenwood) and immediately changes his behavior, joining the Blue Ribbons, Steve and Rachel decides to investigate the mystery discovering the dark secret of the perfect behavior.
"Disturbing Behavior" has an intriguing beginning, with a murder and a group of former troublemakers and potheads transformed in perfect students, like in the classic "Invasion of Body Snatchers". However, when the paranoid Gavin changes his behavior, the plot becomes silly and flawed, and the conclusion is awful. I saw this movie for the first time on 25 March 2000 and I keep my original opinion that this movie is reasonable, but could be great with improvements in the second-half of the story. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): "Comportamento Suspeito" ("Suspicious Behavior")
Note: On 24 May 2024, I saw this film again.
