MOVIE REVIEW :: Panic Room

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT IN 'PANIC ROOM'
Panic Room is one of those films where you find yourself wanting to shout advice to the characters on screen. "Don't open that door!" and "Hurry, they're coming!" spring to mind. But for all of director David Fincher's Hitchcockian homages and excessively violent scenes, the end result is far from the "panic" I was looking forward to squirming through. It almost made me want to shout something else at the screen, perhaps following it with a hand gesture.

Still, Panic Room is far from a bad movie. In fact, it's one of the better films to come out so far this year. So why, you ask, am I disappointed?

Well, Fincher directed Fight Club and Seven, and the media (I hate those guys) have been comparing this new film to Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, which is arguably one of the coolest movies ever.

Panic Room's ingredients: Ultra-violent, dark and claustrophobic, are what all of the aforementioned movies would create if they were mixed together. But the most essential element in any thriller is suspense, and that is where this film falls short. It is there, occasionally making its presence known, but it all but gets up and walks out of the theater halfway through the movie.

That leaves the bulk of the responsibility to salvage what's left to the actors, who all do a superb job, most notably Jodie Foster and Jared Leto.

The premise is rather simple. Meg Altman (Foster) and her daughter Sarah (newcomer Kristen Stewart) purchase an enormous home on the Upper West Side after a bitter divorce with her pharmaceutical tycoon ex-husband. In addition to its vaulted ceilings, a half dozen fireplaces and an elevator, the veritable mansion also contains a "panic room," where, in case of a home invasion, a family could seemingly hide inside a vault-like enclosure and call for help or wait for the intruders to leave.

Unless what the burglars are looking for is in that room (cue dramatic music).

We soon find out the previous owner of the home has left millions in a safe inside the panic room, and on the pair's first night in the home, three intruders break in to steal the hidden fortune, under the assumption that the house is still vacant.

Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto and Dwight Yoakam play the crooks to perfection, and what ensues is a perilous game of cat and mouse as the invaders attempt to get into the panic room where Meg and Sarah are hiding.

Fincher's use of the camera is extraordinary, capturing shots that would make Hitchcock jealous. Of course Hitchcock didn't have access to computer-generated images, either. The camera passes through tiny spaces such as a coffee pot handle, key holes, vents, even between floors, always in one continuous shot, making it all the more impressive. It is truly dazzling filmmaking.

Panic Room only falters because of the hype that has been made of it. It's not a great movie, but it's pretty damn good. The directing is excellent and the acting is first-rate. What more could a movie-goer ask for? Oh, there was that whole suspense thing, wasn't there?