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Panic Room 2002 |
Review by Jonathan Cornwell |
Directed by David Fincher
R, 108 min. (violence, language) |
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Starring: Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker, Dwight Yoakam, Jared Leto, Kristen Stewart, Patrick Bauchau
Producers: Gavin Polone, Judy Hofflund, David Koepp, Cean Chaffin
Screenplay: David Koepp
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Released: 3/29/02 (Wide) |
Rating:
 (out of ) |
There are not many directors today who can craft truly suspenseful motion pictures, but David Fincher (Fight Club, Seven) is
certainly one of them. His visual virtuoso is matched with a keen eye for understanding how to frame a scene, right down
to minute details that would escape lesser directors. With Panic Room, he's created an effective claustophobic environment
for his film, complete with intelligent characters and diligent storytelling. At 108 minutes, the film never drags or feels
heavy-handed, instead its tautly-paced script leaves little time for second guessing or conjecture. You can see how, in the
hands of less talented individuals, Panic Room could self-destruct and border on incoherency, but Fincher doesn't let the
story get away from him. He shows patience by developing characters without boring his audience, while also allowing
his players to formulate realistic scenarios and act upon them. It's refreshing to see films that deliver the goods without
insulting their audience.
Meg (Jodie Foster) and her daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart) fall in love with a gigantic Manhattan home with several floors,
an elevator, and a "panic room" in which to hide safely from intruders. The panic room is insulated by thick, impenetrable
steel, a separate phone line, and a rack of video surveillance that keeps its inhabitants appraised of the situation in the house.
No sooner have they unpacked, when a group of intruders infiltrate their home. The intruders are led by a numbskull leader,
Junior (Jared Leto), an intelligent safe-cracker Burnham (Forest Whitaker), and a mysteriously silent but violent
Raoul (Dwight Yoakam). The showdown ensues when Meg and Sarah outrace their adversaries to the panic room and shut
the door. Unfortunately for them, the violators want something that is in that room. Burnham, who helped build similar
rooms, must find a way to coax Meg out of the room without killing them. Thus the game begins, and only the smartest
will survive.
Invariably, one could argue that Panic Room leaves common sense behind, because, as a number of critics have pointed
out, the intruders need only park themselves in front of the panic room door and wait for it to open. Obviously, two people in
a small room without essentials will eventually succumb to fatigue associated with a lack of food. However, this oversight
must be dismissed or there's no film worth seeing. Fincher knows this, but cleverly disguises it through convincing arguments
between his players, while framing his picture in a way that never completely fails the viewer's plausibility test. Either way,
the audience doesn't care - this is what they've come to see.
Fincher enjoys toying with his audience. Several scenes are riveting simply because we care about the characters and their
well-being. For instance, the film's best sequence, which involves Meg fumbling for her cell phone outside the panic room
while the intruders argue amongst themselves, is so obvious in its attempt to create tension that we're seized with tension anyway
simply because we want to see Meg return to safety. Fincher is becoming a master at showing the audience the end result
without compromising its means of getting there.
Panic Room avoids the temptation to dumb-down its characters so even novice viewers can follow them. For once, it seems
both sides, Meg and Sarah versus Burnham and Raoul, are evenly matched in wits, creating a cat-and-mouse game
that could swing the pendulum of momentum to either side based on ingenuity or just plain chance. And even though its
conclusion is somewhat anticlimactic (the search for a new house), it doesn't dissipate an already satisfying resolution.
With Nicole Kidman unavailable, Fincher turned to the reclusive Jodie Foster, who eventually embraced her first major role
since 1997's Contact. And it's about time too, considering her boundless talent that she brings to her characters.
She instills Meg with believable mother/daughter chemistry, and she tackles her character with an energy that has made
her so attractive to watch for so many years. Forest Whitaker brings a hard-nosed but soft-hearted presence to Burnham,
who must deal with the fanatical duo of Jared Leto's over-the-top Junior and Dwight Yoakam's psychotic Raoul. And
Kristen Stewart makes an impression with her first acting role. Together, they form a formidable cast that allows Fincher
to work his magic around them.
Some movies are just fun to watch, and Panic Room certainly qualifies as a result of believable performances and
effectively-realized set pieces. Fans of David Fincher will be pleased, and those who follow his work have to admit he's an
impressive director. With nary a misstep, the pressure of successive films from Fincher will build, but it would be hard to
imagine a disaster on his resume in the near future anyway. This film restores some faith that Hollywood can still construct
pictures that challenge the mind as much as they do the senses.
© 2002 Jonathan Cornwell
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 | Masterpiece - Film perfection |
 | Excellent - A Must See |
| Good - Highly Recommended |
| Fair - Worth seeing |
| Average - Viewable, but not recommended |
| Below average - View at own risk |
| Poor - Avoid at all costs |
| Very poor - An embarassment to the film industry |
| Zero | Awful - One of the worst films ever made |
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