Panic Room - 3-disc Special Edition  (2002)

Rating: R

Distributor: Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment

Release Date: March 30, 2004
Review posted: March 24, 2004

Spoilers: Minor

Reviewed by Dennis Landmann

SYNOPSIS

Trapped in their New York brownstone's panic room, newly divorced Meg Altman (Jodie Foster) and her daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart) play a deadly game of cat and mouse with three intruders - Burnahm (Forest Whitaker), Raoul (Dwight Yoakam) and Junior (Jared Leto) - during a brutal home invasion. But the Panic Room into which they escape is the very place that holds what the intruders are desperately seeking.

CRITIQUE

David Fincher has been an interesting and promising director in my mind since Seven, and every one of his films is something special, with the exception of Alien3, but I'm not sure it even counts as a film he directed. After Fight Club, a terrific film, Fincher could almost do anything with his next feature, and then he chose to direct Panic Room. The basic plot seemed rather simple, yet something about it was also intriguing and claustrophobic.

Panic Room is much more intricate than it appears to be at first glance. The plot may be simple, but its execution is quite original and imaginative. The story is also personal and dangerous, a woman and her daughter fight off a group of burglars. Their relationship is not the strongest, but the situation forces them to work together. Jodie Foster, a last-minute replacement for Nicole Kidman, who was injured, is really great in this role. She plays the fragile mother to perfection and Kristen Stewart who plays the tomboyish daughter acts mature and believable. The three intruders have characteristics of their own, each of them different yet one thing in common; get the money. The script gives them different personalities and ways to handle situations, which gives the actors a means to create and portray real people.

Perhaps the most rewarding thing about Panic Room, aside from really good performance, is the cinematography by Conrad Hall, Jr. A lot of the really cool shots are enhanced or created with special effects, but it's evident they were storyboarded close to perfection. Each and every angle tells a side of the story or shows just enough for the audience to understand a certain story element. For example, the brownstone in which the film takes place is quite large, so it could be confusing where everything happens. It's important for the viewer to distinguish each floor when a chase or something else happens. With that in mind, Fincher and his team designed a really interesting and effective shot that tracks the breaking and entering of the intruders. The film is full of great sequences and small good moments. These are aided by great-looking camera moves, close-ups, pans, close-ups, etc. Panic Room is a great visual experience as much as it is an exciting and dangerous story or survival.

Another really good thing about the film is the haunting-like score by composer Howard Shore. It evokes a sense of danger and pressure each time it comes on. David Fincher's direction is clever, very detailed and really solid. David Koepp's script is smart and fast-paced, plus the characters are realistic and the dialogue is sincere. Panic Room is a neat thriller with several really nice sequences and smart plot elements, all of which leads to an exciting payoff.

THE VIDEO

Columbia presents Panic Room in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. Colors are deliberately muted, which gives the film a claustrophobic and dark look that fits very well. But the presentation is not really dark in terms of quality. Detail is sharp, and the special effects look realistic and color-balanced. In general, the colors look pretty darn good. Grain appears in some places, plus there is minor edge haloing going on, not to mention some shimmering in a few background scenes. Digital artifacting occurs, but it doesn't distract. On the good side, black levels and dark tones are very deep and consistent. Overall, a very good presentation by Columbia despite some problems.

THE AUDIO

Columbia presents Panic Room in English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound. First and foremost, everything about surround sound works just great in this presentation. Dialogue is always clear and easy to understand. Positional audio and channel separation is great. The front speakers turn up the volume, plus there is some really firm bass. The surrounds have a lot to do, reinforcing Howard Shore's at-times-haunting score, the incredible sound effects, and the more subliminal audio, such as the thrumming sound. The audio really reaches the soundfield in this presentation, which makes for an enveloping auditory experience. Columbia's presentation is a very good, aggressive mix.

There is no DTS track like it appears on the Superbit release, but that's fine. Spanish and French 5.1 dub tracks are also featured. Optional subtitles include English, Spanish and French.

THE EXTRAS

Panic Room comes to us in a three-disc special edition filled with informative and insightful extras that were produced by David Prior. The discs are arranged in three plastic cases stacked on top of each other and the packaging artwork is rather simple but effective. The cover design is also rather simple but conveys a dark mood with an all black background and the title in big, red letters.

Disc 1 starts off with the feature and three newly-recorded audio commentaries with various participants.

The cast commentary features Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker, and Dwight Yoakam. It concentrates on acting, and working with Fincher and each other, plus additional insights into various things. Sure, I'm keeping the synopsis of the track very general, but it's better you check it out yourself, but only after listening to the tracks with Fincher and Koepp, respectively, of course.

The director's commentary features David Fincher in an engaging and insightful discussion about the film and various other topics. He's an engaging speaker and knows his stuff. As on the Fight Club commentary, Fincher's comments here are also insightful and interesting.

The writer's commentary features David Koepp and a special guest in an on-going discussion about the script, the writing process, the directing, the preview process, and other topics. A recommended listen especially for screenwriters as the special guest, William Goldman, asks Koepp many questions about writing and such, getting right to the point and covering a lot of ground.

Trailers round out the first disc, including Panic Room, Lawrence of Arabia, Taxi Driver, Dr. Strangelove, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

The extras on disc 2 concentrate on pre-production and production of the film. This disc and the third don't feature a a "play all" option so you have to use your remote a lot.

In Pre-production, you'll find two sub-menus.

The first one, Prep, includes the featurettes The Testing Phase (16:29), watch early test footage of film stock and special effects, and Safe Cracking School (12:50), an instructor advises Fincher and several others how to crack a safe by drilling into it (didn't find this very interesting). There's also an easter egg that explains the construction of a real panic room.

The other sub-menu is Previsualization where you'll find four featurettes. Creating the Previs (10:18) focuses on the animated storyboarding done on the computer. Fincher discusses with the team of animators footage of a rough previs animation. Comparison shots of the rough and new previs are shown. Previs Demo (3:30) is what it is, a demo, also available with commentary. Habitrail Film (1:00) is a quick but interesting look at the blocking of the elevator chase sequence. As for the Multi-Angle Featurette (38:00), choose among four audio tracks, specifically raw sound, commentary by storyboard artist Peter Ramsey, final mix, and/or commentary by PLF founder/animator Colin Green, to watch and compare finalized footage with the previs and storyboard.

In the Production menu, you'll find this:

Shooting Panic Room (52:36) details the principal photography phase. The camera is almost everywhere and captures the filming of many scenes and cool moments in-between takes. Jared Leto's infatuation with the camera is rather strange, but nevertheless this is a terrific and very sweet documentary that featured very cool footage. The docu also covers the construction of the major set, which is incredible.

Lastly, the 112-minute feature is organized into twenty-eight chapters.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Panic Room features solid direction, a smart and fast-paced script, really good performances, terrific cinematography, and a haunting score. The story is simple yet complex. Columbia's 3-disc special edition offers near excellent video/audio and a great number of insightful extras. This DVD is very highly recommended.

VERDICT: DVD COLLECTOR SERIES

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