Panic Room (2002)

Starring: Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker, Kristin Stewart
Director: David Fincher

Rating: R

Studio: Columbia

Review Posted: 3.31.02

Spoilers: Minor

By Craig Younkin. | Read Review #2

I love the work that David Fincher does with thrillers. "Se7en" is terrific, "Fight Club" is one of the best films of 1999, and "The Game" is one of the most breathtaking psychological thrillers ever made. I also like most of the work written by screenwriter David Koepp, but I can't skate around the obvious fact that their new film "Panic Room" is an uphill battle. A vaguely drawn out script that uses every bogus trick in the book and a mostly less-than involving suspense factor just made me wonder what exactly the motives were for making this film in the first place.

Maybe it was so David Fincher could show us some fancy camera tricks, as he moves through walls, halls, pipes, and etc. Maybe the script to "Home Alone 4" wasn't funny enough so they just made this in order to not waste the paper. Whatever it was, "Panic Room" is a blueprint for utter stupidity. A plot so desperate that it has to fall victim to things that make no logical sense other than to create even a modicum of suspense.

It doesn't take long before you realize this thing has to sacrifice a huge amount of reality to run for this long of time, and any suspense the film can muster is hampered by the audiences constant state of disbelief.

The movie stars Jodie Foster as Meg Altman, a recently divorced mother looking to begin a new life with her daughter (Kristen Stewart). For starters, the two buy an interesting new brownstone house; interesting because of one of the rooms it contains. That room would be the Panic Room, the safest part of the house. The room is equipped with surveillance material, food rations, telephone system, and is encompassed by very thick steel, which makes it impenetrable.

Will it be tested, of course it will. During their first night in the house, they are visited by three robbers named Junior (Jared Leto), Burnham (Forrest Whittaker), and Raoul (Dwight Yokam). Meg gathers up her daughter and heads for the panic room, not knowing that what they want is in that room.

Junior is the heir of the last person who owned the brownstone, and knows that there is quite a bit of money locked in a safe in the panic room. At first not knowing that there were actually people in the house, the situation becomes more complicated for the robbers as they must force Meg and her daughter out while debating over new situations that arise.

The first problem with "Panic Room" are the robbers. Burnham, who happens to be one of the guys who worked on the house and so knows what to expect from it, is too nice. The guy wants the money for a valid reason and is totally against killing or even hurting the unexpected residents of the house. Forrest Whittaker plays him in such a way that you would rather hug the guy rather than run away from him.

Jared Leto is a bit more serious as Junior, but he is given the cornball role that would have went to Daniel Stern under different circumstances. He scary, and he surely doesn't have Stern's manic performance ability. That leaves Dwight Yokam, who is superb as the crazy MoFo Raoul, only the problem with his character is that he serves no purpose. Burnham knows the house, Junior knows about the money, but this guy just seems like he's along for the ride for no other apparent reason than to cause havoc.

These three guys also do everything except call in the wrecking crew to drown Meg out, but do the neighbors hear, of course not. Meg's daughter sends an S.O.S message across the street, but what does the neighbor do then, he closes the shutters exactly like the b-grade movie formula instructs him to do. I would give away the whole movie, but I would just be giving away one implausible situation after another and it would probably bore you to death. Trust me, it did for me.

It there was one thing that kept this movie in the world of reality, it would be Foster's grounded performance as Meg. Her strength combined with fear make for a few compelling scenes, even in the most tedious of circumstances where every asinine trick in the book is used during a scene in which she makes a break for her cell phone.

The talent involved in this movie is much better than the vague material being presented, and since this plot is such an up-hill battle, I can only hope that the talent can bounce back. But as it stands, "Panic Room" is one of the years biggest disappointments.

Rating: 2 out of 4

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