Review of Panic Room (2002) by Dave C — 17 Nov 2009

Panic Room is a taut, richly layered and expertly-made thriller, marred only by some distracting indulgences and weird directorial choices.

Fincher gives us what should be enough material for little more than a short film and stretches it near the 2-hour territory with Hitchcockian skill. The simple story, excellent characters, and expert plotting are all the basic ingredients of a great Hitchcock thriller. Add to that a bravura performance by Forest Whitaker and some morally ambiguous themes and it elevates itself into something truly great.

However, Fincher employs some odd directorial choices that ultimately hurt the film for me. This is a ridiculously simple film, taking place in one location, with only a handful of characters. Most of it is directed as such. Lots of beautiful, simple shots and blocking that add to the atmosphere.

But then we'll get a shot that is so laden with masturbatory CG that it takes you out of the experience. Some of it is fantastic. There is one particularly long take when the bad guys enter the house that is really great (aside from the camera going into the keyhole nonsense). After that, though, there are some shots that just felt weirdly unnecessary. Fincher loves his CG shots, and while they work very well in Fight Club (and add to the movie), they only distracted me here. It would be another few years before he would set the standard for integrating CG with film, and I'm not talking about Benjamin Button.

On top of that, there were a few other little things that bothered me. Certain little things like when the bad guys first enter and are walking around, putting things on the floor fairly loudly, and talking... How is it that nobody could hear them? Especially when Foster wakes up the first time, it feels rather weird that she doesn't hear ONE PERSON out of those three in this huge, echoey brownstone. A couple other things seemed to have been done for the benefit of the audience where in real life nobody would do such a thing. Those moments always take me out of a film.

Other than those two complaints, everything else is really well done. The direction is largely fantastic, with some beautiful shots and great sound design throughout. The pacing is perfect, and the suspense is top notch. This was my second time seeing Panic Room. The first time I saw it, I didn't like it. This was back in 2002 when it came out. Seeing it again, I loved it quite a bit more. While I still have a few issues, it's still a spectacular thriller, and there aren't very many of those these days.