I have to think that Shia LaBoeuf is a good actor. When I saw him in the teen horror movie Disturbia, I want to be him.
Not the actual actor, of course. I didn't want to be LaBeouf, and even less so after I read about his real life in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia_LaBeouf:Wikipedia -- even though he was slim, muscular, and 22 years old. Nor do I mean the movie character Kale Brecht who was not quite 18, in trouble with the law since the traffic accident which killed his father (while Kale was driving), and, worst of all for a character in a movie, eminently forgettable.
No, the person that I felt I wanted to be was the imaginary person that LaBeouf caused the character Kale to evoke when Kale was in the presence of the girl next door.
This desire is not based simply on the fact that the girl next door was portrayed by the slightly older model Sarah Roemer, although that played its part. Another part is that in the movie, unlike actual reality, the character Kale was most admirable, most enviable, and -- because we want it to be so -- most believable when he was with the girl.
Even LaBeouf couldn't make his character believable when moving the insipid plot forward. But then the movie wasn't about the plot; the plot was only a tool to bring teenaged girls and boys close together for 105 minutes. And that, in actual reality, is why Kale is so enviable when he is with the girl.
Movies are not real life, but the movie business is a piece of the actual reality game and making people feel that they can be what they wish they were is a strong play for any player in the game.