Starring: Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, Kristen Stewart
Running Time: 1:50
Country: USA
Year: 2002
Web: Official Site
Based on: Novel
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In Panic Room, a Home Alone for grown-ups, director David Fincher tries to make us experience fear through the eyes of a mom whose home has been invaded. While both of his earlier works, Se7en and Fight Club were visually pieces successfully playing with our emotions and perception, here we are pretty much left in an empty room.
Following a break-up with her billionaire husband, Meg Altman (Jody Foster) and her daughter Sarah (Kristin Stewart) decide to move into a New York house featuring a panic room, a shelter designed to protect its occupants from home invasion. On their first night, three men break in to steal some money left by the previous owner in the panic room where the woman and girl have taken refuge.
This is by far Fincher's weakest work as the film cruelty lacks substance and self-restraint. The first question that comes to mind is why Meg and Sarah would choose such a huge three-story house with more rooms than the Playboy mansion for only the two of them. But this is nothing compared to one of the main problems here: the three robbers whose stupidity would match any Disney-animated evil character. Indeed, those "three amigos" include: a nice man (Forest Whitaker) who's only doing this to get money to save his sick child (probably an unofficial spin-off of John Q), an agitated and annoying big mouth (Jared Leto) and a violent psycho (Dwight Yoakam).
Fincher's direction has certainly some bravura moments such as the long sequence that introduces the break-in, a breathtaking exit of the panic room in search of a cellular phone and some imposing opening credits—a Fincher trademark. Unfortunately, he never manages to create a suffocating atmosphere and the ensemble looks like a too predictable academic take on Hitchcock. While Se7en successfully got under our skin and Fight Club played us, the Panic Room never reaches its goal. The film never comes close to being as scary as being locked in a movie theater for a Leo Carax festival. The panic is never able to leave the screen and hit the audience. Mostly the picture plays on cheap thrills and clichés that leave you with a sense of déjà-vu.
The cast is not homogenous. Jody Foster is credible, having the toughness and coldness necessary for the role. Forest Whitaker's presence is felt but his talent is underused in one of these usual "big bear" roles. More problematic is the two other thirds of the "three amigos". Jared Leto, whose performance was so remarkable in Requiem for a Dream, is unbearable here with his imitation of Lakers guard Rick Fox on speed. As for Dwight Yoakam, whose natural looks are as scary as Scooby Doo's, aren't there enough unemployed actors around and wasn't his lame pretentious western enough of a warning about his movie talents?
Only those who had great expectations from this talented director's new work will be able to experience the panic room, in this case the theater they're in.
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Panic Room review
