The Panic Room Review
by Bob Bloom (bobbloom AT iquest DOT net)April 1st, 2002
PANIC ROOM (2002) 2 stars out of 4. Starring Jodie Foster, Kristen Stewart, Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, Dwight Yoakam, Patrick Bauchau, Ann Magnuson and Ian Buchanan. Music by Howard Shore. Written by David Koepp. Directed by David Fincher. Rated R. Approx. 110 minutes.
You emerge from Panic Room like a restaurant patron who - because of the establishment's reputation - had expectations for a five-star meal, but was disappointed that the food was only slightly above average.
The analogy is apropos to my reaction to David Fincher's latest work. Perhaps because his previous outings, mostly notably Se7en and The Fight Club, contained that add boost, that extra kick that took the audience by surprise, I was expecting more than he gave in Panic Room.
While it contains some very suspenseful sequences, the overall impact lacks any clout. The movie builds early than winds down slowly like a clock whose battery is failing. Panic Room doesn't end as much as it runs out of steam.
The fault lies in the script by David Koepp, which contains many implausabilities, several gaps in logic and a few inconsistencies. The movie plays like a mutant combination of Home Alone meets Wait Until Dark.
Newly divorced Meg Altman (Jodie Foster) and her teen-age daughter, Sarah (Kristen Stewart) move into a New York West Side brownstone with about as much space as Yankee Stadium. The building contains a "panic room," a secret compartment with its own air supply, phone system and video surveillance system to which the occupants can flee if any one of New York's thousands of disreputables decides to pay an unannounced visit.
Sure enough, first night in their new digs three men break into the place. You'd think with all that was spent of security, a few more bucks could have been spent on stronger and more burglar-proof doors and windows.
Before you can say Macauley Culkin, Meg grabs Sarah and the two are snug as bugs in the panic room. The only problem is, what the crooks want also is in the room.
Thus begins a tedious round of talk, threats and near captures that runs on and on until the bloody finale. The tedious give-and-take wears on you, as the crooks finally work their way into the hidden chamber, while Meg is now on the outside.
One of Panic Room's faults rests in the portrayals of the trio of villains: Junior (Jared Leto) is a dim-witted motormouth who actually is the brains of the operation; Burnham (Forest Whitaker) is the variation on the whore-with-the-heart-of-gold; he's the burglar with a conscience - he'll break into someplace, but he won't harm any people. Raoul (Dwight Yoakam) is your standard psychopath who enjoys maiming and killing.
Foster's Meg is swift on her feet and quick witted, and you have no doubt that she will prevail.
Fincher creates tension not through the situation, but through his camera, which he continually swoops through the brownstone like a bat lost in a cave.
Fincher needed to spend more time on his actors and script. For example, when initially shown the panic room, Meg begins acting claustrophobic. Later, while she and Sarah are walled in, she transforms into super-mom, stripping and crossing wires and devising various signals to alert neighbors or whoever will notice to her danger.
Yaokam's Raoul is too cartoonish and stereotypical to be taken as a serious threat, no matter how many people he kills or ribs he kicks in. Whitaker succeeds in instilling some semblance of humanity into his Burnham, while Leto is more comic than clever.
Panic Room is too messy, too loose. It fails to make your heart pound or race. It fails to quicken your pulse. It will, though, make you look at your watch.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected]. Other reviews by Bloom can be found by going to www.jconline.com and clicking on golafayette.
Other reviews by Bloom can be found at the Internet Movie Database:
http://www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom
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