Panic Room ««½
R, 112m. 2002
Cast & Credits: Jodie Foster (Meg Altman), Kristen Stewart (Sarah Altman), Forest Whitaker (Burnham), Dwight Yoakam (Raoul), Jared Leto (Junior), Patrick Bauchau (Stephen Altman), Ann Magnuson (Lydia Lynch), Ian Buchanan (Evan Kurlander), Andrew Kevin Walker (Sleepy Neighbor), Paul Schulze (Officer Keeney), Mel Rodriguez (Officer Morales). Screenplay by David Koepp. Directed by David Fincher.
The trouble with the film, Panic Room, is the overwhelming sense of security I felt. For a movie whose title suggests this is supposed to be a suspenseful, edge of your seat thriller, Panic Room is relatively tame. There wasn’t a time watching it that I didn’t feel the heroines played by Jodie Foster and Kristen Stewart were really in a grave amount of danger. Even when they were in danger, I knew it wouldn’t be for long.
The film is far below what I’ve come to expect from director David Fincher who helmed the hauntingly dark serial murder mystery, Se7en (1995), which showed just how depraved and sick evil could be.
Fincher once again shows in Panic Room how much he likes to shoot in darkness. Like Se7en, the entire film takes place at night and it’s raining. When the sun is out during the day as in the beginning, it doesn’t seem to be shining. The light is more of a gray haze.
Where as Se7en was an edge of your seat, suspenseful thriller, Panic Room, with a script by David Koepp (Jurassic Park -1993) dredges up déjà vu; memories of better movies. The plot is a cross between Home Alone (1990) and Die Hard (1988) with Foster as a female John McClane/McCaulay Culkin type who must protect herself and her daughter (Kristen Stewart) from three bumbling burglars who may as well be called Moe, Larry and Curly.
The burglars played by Jared Leto, Forest Whitaker and Dwight Yokam have only broken in the house for one thing that just happens to be inside the “panic room”; the very place Foster and Stewart take refuge in. The rest of the film has the three trying to get the couple out of the room so they can get what they want.
For a while, Panic Room could practically go down as a comedy as the three burglars argue with each other about why Foster moved in a week early (the Leto character thinks 14 days adds up to a three week grace period when it comes to buying a home). The most sensible one and perhaps the most caring of the three is Forest Whitaker who doesn’t really want to hurt the homeowners.
The good news is at least the film isn’t What Lies Beneath (2000); a movie that imitated Alfred Hitchcock’s scare tactics and camera movements so much the filmmakers probably thought it really was a Hitchcock original.
Although Panic Room does have moments where it imitates Hitchcock, they are more original and don’t look as they were stolen from someone else’s work. I liked the way the opening credits hung in the middle of the Manhattan buildings using stop motion photography. The musical score even sounds a bit like composer Bernard Herrmman’s score for Psycho (1960).
There is also some clever shots of the camera panning through keyholes, cracks and crevices of the building that suggest a feeling of claustrophobia or helplessness. I also liked those moments where the sound would suddenly drown out and all we are seeing are the burglars arguing with each other but we can’t hear what they’re saying.
Those shots are one of the few suspense tactics the film uses that intercuts the scene with Foster jumping out of the “panic room” (a room full of VCRs and video surveillance cameras) to retrieve her cell phone from underneath the bed, hoping not to make a noise the burglars will hear. Does she make a noise? Yes. Do the burglars hear it? Yes. I’ll let you guess on whether Foster makes it back inside the “panic room” in time.
That’s the whole trouble with the film. Watching it, I was reminded of the speech Peter Finch’s Howard Beale gave in the 1976 Oscar winning film, Network. He talks about how fake television is because no one ever dies in Archie Bunker’s house and if you watch an action adventure story and are worried your hero will die, just look at the time and be content everyone lives happily ever after before the hour is up.
Foster and Stewart do go through moments of peril in Panic Room but all I had to do was look at my watch and know that somehow, the situation was going to be resolved without any one truly getting hurt. That is with the exception of the villains.
©4/10/02
R, 112m. 2002
Cast & Credits: Jodie Foster (Meg Altman), Kristen Stewart (Sarah Altman), Forest Whitaker (Burnham), Dwight Yoakam (Raoul), Jared Leto (Junior), Patrick Bauchau (Stephen Altman), Ann Magnuson (Lydia Lynch), Ian Buchanan (Evan Kurlander), Andrew Kevin Walker (Sleepy Neighbor), Paul Schulze (Officer Keeney), Mel Rodriguez (Officer Morales). Screenplay by David Koepp. Directed by David Fincher.
The film is far below what I’ve come to expect from director David Fincher who helmed the hauntingly dark serial murder mystery, Se7en (1995), which showed just how depraved and sick evil could be.
Fincher once again shows in Panic Room how much he likes to shoot in darkness. Like Se7en, the entire film takes place at night and it’s raining. When the sun is out during the day as in the beginning, it doesn’t seem to be shining. The light is more of a gray haze.
Where as Se7en was an edge of your seat, suspenseful thriller, Panic Room, with a script by David Koepp (Jurassic Park -1993) dredges up déjà vu; memories of better movies. The plot is a cross between Home Alone (1990) and Die Hard (1988) with Foster as a female John McClane/McCaulay Culkin type who must protect herself and her daughter (Kristen Stewart) from three bumbling burglars who may as well be called Moe, Larry and Curly.
The burglars played by Jared Leto, Forest Whitaker and Dwight Yokam have only broken in the house for one thing that just happens to be inside the “panic room”; the very place Foster and Stewart take refuge in. The rest of the film has the three trying to get the couple out of the room so they can get what they want.
For a while, Panic Room could practically go down as a comedy as the three burglars argue with each other about why Foster moved in a week early (the Leto character thinks 14 days adds up to a three week grace period when it comes to buying a home). The most sensible one and perhaps the most caring of the three is Forest Whitaker who doesn’t really want to hurt the homeowners.
The good news is at least the film isn’t What Lies Beneath (2000); a movie that imitated Alfred Hitchcock’s scare tactics and camera movements so much the filmmakers probably thought it really was a Hitchcock original.
Although Panic Room does have moments where it imitates Hitchcock, they are more original and don’t look as they were stolen from someone else’s work. I liked the way the opening credits hung in the middle of the Manhattan buildings using stop motion photography. The musical score even sounds a bit like composer Bernard Herrmman’s score for Psycho (1960).
There is also some clever shots of the camera panning through keyholes, cracks and crevices of the building that suggest a feeling of claustrophobia or helplessness. I also liked those moments where the sound would suddenly drown out and all we are seeing are the burglars arguing with each other but we can’t hear what they’re saying.
Those shots are one of the few suspense tactics the film uses that intercuts the scene with Foster jumping out of the “panic room” (a room full of VCRs and video surveillance cameras) to retrieve her cell phone from underneath the bed, hoping not to make a noise the burglars will hear. Does she make a noise? Yes. Do the burglars hear it? Yes. I’ll let you guess on whether Foster makes it back inside the “panic room” in time.
That’s the whole trouble with the film. Watching it, I was reminded of the speech Peter Finch’s Howard Beale gave in the 1976 Oscar winning film, Network. He talks about how fake television is because no one ever dies in Archie Bunker’s house and if you watch an action adventure story and are worried your hero will die, just look at the time and be content everyone lives happily ever after before the hour is up.
Foster and Stewart do go through moments of peril in Panic Room but all I had to do was look at my watch and know that somehow, the situation was going to be resolved without any one truly getting hurt. That is with the exception of the villains.
©4/10/02
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