Panic Room

Review - David Fincer's (Se7en, The Game, Fight Club) new thriller is as good as anything else he's done; Alien 3 not withstanding. Smartly written, directed, and acted Panic Room is awfully cool and as fluid as classic thrillers of the past (I've heard a lot of comparisons to Wait Until Dark and I thought it too, so I guess it should be of note).

Slow, dark, and moody, Panic Room is for the patient.  Don't fret; you'll be rewarded for your time.  David Keopp's (The Heist) script is without any original idea but is wonderfully cared for and precise.  I mean there's nothing here you haven’t seen in a basket full of other thrillers but the quality of this script is well above par.

Howard Shore (Oscar Nominee for The Fellowship of the Ring) provides a very dark score that picks you up from the films first note and effectively moves you to the edge of your seat.  Helping to keep you there throughout the film.  The whole sound of the film is really good.  When the actors hurt, you'll feel it.

The acting provides no stretch for the actors.  They all play exactly whom you'd expect them to and they do it very well.  They're perfect.  Forrest Whitaker, Jodie Foster, Jared Leto, & Dwight Yokham all get there names above the film's title (in about the most optically odd, and my new favorite, titling sequence).  Kristen Stewart (Sarah Altman, Jodie's daughter in the film) is great; I'd expect to see good things from her in the future.  Patrick Bauchau, Ian Buchana, and Ann Magnuson rounds out the cast nicely. A bit of note: Andrew Kevin Walker, the writer of Se7en and 8mm has a small cameo in the film as the neighbor.

It would seem as though Panic Room was a film school assignment for Fincer. "Class, today you'll be making a classic suspense thriller." "Here's your tools.  You have two hours.  Begin now." And David's project would get him an A, no doubt.

-m-