The Panic Room Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)April 1st, 2002
PANIC ROOM
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Left by her wealthy older husband for another woman, an emotionally unsteady Meg Altman (Jodie Foster) and her teenage daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart) move into the massive brownstone of a deceased, eccentric
millionaire.
Besides being one of the largest pieces of real estate available in the Upper West Side, the old manse has a secret room, impenetrable from the outside. When a trio of intruders come treasure hunting, claustrophobic Meg and her diabetic daughter are forced to face the "Panic Room."
Director David Fincher ("Seven," "Fight Club") takes David Koepp's ("Stir of Echoes") genre screenplay and makes something special with dazzling technical work and his Oscar winning star. "Panic Room" delivers a war of wits before petering out into an uninspired coda.
Apparently panic rooms are regaining popularity in today's uncertain times. Like an internal bomb shelter, Meg's panic room is encased in steel, stocked with emergency supplies and outfitted with security monitors (shades of Fincher's "The Game," as is the building's skylight) and a phone line external to the house.
Still reeling from her divorce, Meg tries to temper sullen Sarah's resentment, but drowns her own emotions with a bottle of red wine. She doesn't hear the three men who break into her home on the very first night she sleeps there. Up for a middle-of-the-night aspirin, she incredulously spies the intruders on her monitor and just barely manages to get Sarah from an upper floor and make it back to the panic room before they do.
The three intruders are at odds before this, however. Burnham (Forest Whitaker, "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai") enters first and is aghast to find the two sleeping women. He's a security expert who builds panic rooms, hoping to make a quick score in an empty building based on information from his partner. Junior (Jared Leto, "Requiem for a Dream") is the grandson of the former owner, hoping to make off with the hidden money his family's all squabbling over. Burnham's also upset that none-too-bright Junior's brought along a third accomplice, Raoul (Dwight Yoakam, "Sling Blade"), a masked and menacing unknown.
As Koepp's screenplay pits the two women against the three men, shifting the upper hand back and forth and providing reasons for exiting the panic room, Fincher has a field day with the execution. The film begins with three-dimensional, granite architectural titles suspended before New York City buildings, not as spectacular an opening sequence as "Seven," but every bit as original. The camera (first of Darius Khondji ("Seven") who left over 'artistic differences', then of Conrad W. Hall (effects photographer, "Alien Resurrection") glides between floorboards, through stair railings and keyholes, and even performs a loop-de-loop descending a staircase. Exceptional sound work (Ren Klyce, sound designer) is most uniquely displayed in a scene where Meg leaves her haven to retrieve a cell phone, the entire sequence seeming and sounding like it was under water. Arthur Max's production design creates a privileged place, run down and murky from its years housing an elderly invalid. The exterior courtyard (seen through a vent hole from within the panic room) and fronting street are covered in the dank, rain trodden autumn leaves of Halloween.
Foster, who took over the role from an injured Nicole Kidman, gives her most assured performance since winning her second Oscar. Only the strength of her maternal protective instincts allow her to overcome sheer terror. While her creeping about in darkened space may recall Clarice's journey through the basement of Buffalo Bill, Meg is a different, if equally sharp, character. Whitaker makes Burnham's conundrum sympathetic and the character works as a bridge between the hunters and the hunted. Yoakam once again proves effective at maintaining tension through a character's hair-trigger propensity for violence, while Jared Leto offers comic relief. Also notable is Paul Schulze as a policeman who comes to investigate.
"Panic Room" is a modern day take on "Wait Until Dark," rejuvenated by a stylish technician and first rate cast.
B
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