Review of Panic Room (2002) by Anthony M — 11 Jun 2010

David Fincher returns off of the outstanding Fight Club with an above average suspense-thriller. Starring Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto and Kristen Stewart, Panic Room revolves around Meg Altman (Foster) and her daughter, Sarah (Stewart) who after a recent divorce move into a new house, which has a panic room. Unbeknown to them, some small time thugs are coming to take something out of the previously unoccupied house. As events spiral out of the control, the Panic Room is the Altman's survivor but also their downfall...

Well, I think I made that storyline sound fairly awesome and while it isn't awesome it's still a pretty thrilling ride. The film has a number of good aspects but unfortunately, isn't going to be remembered as a classic of the genre. The plot is fairly uninteresting and while I think the Panic Room concept is an interesting one but there are a number of plot holes and the film suffers from the 'idiot syndrome', very common in teen slasher films, in which we wonder why the characters are doing such idiotic mistakes.

The film however, is pushed from rotten to fresh by the suburb directing by David Fincher and some strong performances. I really love Fincher's style of directing, the unique style is very prominent and developed in Fight Club and he continues this in Panic Room. His use of using the camera and CGI to pan or follow objects or people is very interesting and really great to watch. He creates a great dark atmosphere which is shown in all his previous films, especially films such as Se7en.

Jodie Foster gives a great performance but one that won't necessarily be remembered. At sometimes her character does border on annoying and suffers greatly from the 'idiot syndrome' mentioned before. Forest Whitaker also puts in a solid performance, while I don't think its as strong as Fosters, he pulls off compassionate thug really well and watching his character deal with the issues he has with what he is doing is really interesting. Stewart's performance was adequate and much better than her recent films and Jared Leto was entertaining.

I think Panic Room is probably the right way for Fincher to progress and definitely shows of his unique flare and originality to filming. I love his dark atmosphere that always creates and while I think the film is let down by the fairly simple plot. It does work and at times, does keep you on the edge of your seat.