Review of Panic Room (2002) by Danny R — 17 Jan 2016

David Fincher's unique, claustrophobic thriller which is an engrossing highly suspenseful slickly executed film. A mother named Meg Altman, played impressively by Jodie Foster in a superlative star performance, who is newly separated from her extremely rich older husband who is a pharmaceutical tycoon, she moves into a huge brownstone townhouse in Manhattan with her teenaged daughter Sarah, well-played by a very young Kristen Stewart, the residence has 3 floors, an elevator, 8 bedrooms, 6 working fireplaces and a "panic room," an impenetrable cement and steel encased safe-room which has 8 surveillance video monitors , a separate buried phone line and a motorized sliding reinforced steel door that is secured by solid core dead bolts and a motion sensitive closing system.

That evening while Meg and Sarah are sleeping, a trio of intruders thinking that the place is still empty break in, Meg notices them on surveillance monitor and runs to Sarah's room and her and Sarah with the intruders chasing them manage to make it to the panic room locking themselves in, the trio of intruders are terrifically played by Forest Whitaker as Bumham, the security technician who helped build the panic room, Jared Leto as Junior, the manic leader of the group, and country singer Dwight Yoakam as Raoul, the nearly-silent sadistic sociopath with an itchy trigger finger, they have come to steal something specific unfortunately what they want is in the panic room, a cat and mouse game of wills ensues as Meg desperately tries to find a way to summon help as the intruders try to get her out.

Masterful direction by Fincher, with unforgettable and extraordinary cinematography by the great Conrad Hall & Darius Khondji is truly breathtaking with amazing swooping shots down stairwell, up skylights and room to room, in air vents and through walls, Fincher has a grand-time creating an white-knuckle atmosphere of prolonged tension and dread, there is marvelous editing by James Haywood & Angus Wall, with a brilliant score by Howard Shore.

A pulse-pounding thoroughly entertaining motion picture, a must-see. Highly Recommended.