Rating: 8/10
Review date: May 26, 2002
A newly divorced mother and her daughter moved to a new house in New York which is different from any other regular house. The house contains a �panic room� which is supposed to be impenetrable with three-inch thick walls, screens linked to surveillance cameras throughout the house and a separate phone line.
What mother and daughter don�t know is that the room also contains a safe. When three burglars broke into their house, mother and daughter seek refuge inside the room and a cat-and-mouse game soon ensues which will test their endurance to the limits�
This movie completely grips me from the beginning to the end. Kudos to director David Fincher for being able to sustain my interest throughout even though the movie mostly took place in a single house. Fincher also managed to provide some slick and all-seeing camera movements which travel seamlessly all over the house.
There was a particular scene which is very tense and Fincher brilliantly heightened it for the audience by incorporating silence. Thus there are lots of effective uses of sounds (or the absence of it) which is further emphasized by some amazing scores from Howard Shore aside from the dark and dreadful atmosphere that accompanies the movie from beginning to the end.
The casts are just awesome in this movie with Jodie Foster being the desperate mother who has to protect her daughter, Sarah (played by Kristen Stewart), while thinking of ingenious ways to turn the tables on the burglars and endure through the night.
Aside from Foster�s great performance, the bandits are very convincing as well by not being too stereotypical as heartless people. Forest Whitaker as Burnham managed to grab my sympathy as �the bad guy with a heart� while Dwight Yoakam�s character is the exact opposite and Jared Leto as Junior serves as the comic relief; the three of them is a great combination of characters which is quite diverse yet totally convincing in such situation.
The main issue that keeps me going is not knowing what�s going to happen next. Every moves made by both the burglars and the mother with her daughter provides an opportunity for the burglars to counter and this generates the tension necessary to keep the audience stuck to their seats.
The Panic Room is ultimately recommended for those people who want to see David Fincher at work, meaning his great accomplishment by implementing various aspects of a movie to make it interesting (including the unique opening credits). It�s still a solid and engaging movie even though it doesn�t contain as much surprises and twists as other Fincher movies such as Seven or Fight Club.
Memorable quote: �That�s seven years of bad luck��
-Dwight Yoakam as Raoul-
(c) 2002 Martin Taidy