Dir:
David Fincher
Starring:
Jodie Foster
Forest Whitaker
Jared Leto
Dwight Yoakam
2002
R, 112 m
RATING: 7 out of 10
Review Date:
04.10.02
David Koepp (Stir of Echoes) scripts this potboiler about a recently divorced mother (Foster) and her diabetic daughter (Kristen Stewart) move into a New York home whose previous owner had a panic room built in; basically it's a room surrounded by steel and filled with surveillance monitors, medical kits, and water to last for days. It's a good thing, too, since on their first night, three burglars (played well by Whitaker, Leto, and Yoakam) break in, attempting to find a fortune that's been hidden in, of course, the room.
Foster is used to playing strong women roles, but she's never come off as being more resourceful as in Panic Room. She makes her character seem like less a victim than a force to be reckokned with, and instead ably matches her captors. Whitaker, Leto, and Yoakam all play their parts convincingly as the intelligent, strategic, and violent burglars, respectively. The only role that comes off as a plot device is the daughter, who seems to be there not as a character but more a hinderance to the film's heroine.
Fincher is a master of suspense, and there are droves of it as Foster smartly and able participates in a game of cat-and-mouse with the thieves. She comes up with clever and effective ways of dealing with them, which I won't reveal here. Suffice to say there are many moments when the audience is riveted to the screen and also never feels as if the movie is becoming an implausible eye-roller. Panic Room isn't near Fincher's other work, but still is a tense, above average thriller.
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