Written by David Koepp
Directed by David Fincher

There are a few movies that I can recall in my life saying, “I want to see that” when they first came out.  Then, for whatever reason, they fell off my radar.  Usually, it has something to do with mommy-chaos.  Panic Room was one of those films.  I liked the promise of the combination of Jodi Foster and Director David Fincher, even though I had concerns about a predictable storyline.

Jodi Foster is Meg Altman, a divorcee moving to a new place with her daughter, Sarah (portrayed by Kristen Stewart).  They find a brownstone that’s quite rambling for the two of them.  The house has a built-in panic room, into which they can go if they believe an intruder is in the house while they wait for the police to respond.  It makes Meg uncomfortable and a bit claustrophobic while the real estate agent is showing it to her.

Meg and Sarah move into the house, but Meg is still trying to learn the ins and outs of the security system, including the panic room, when there’s a break-in.  The three men are after thirty million dollars which is supposedly hidden somewhere in the house.  The mother and daughter manage to retreat into the panic room, but are then trapped as neither of them is quite sure how to operate it.

From there on, the film is a sort of cat and mouse as Meg and Sarah try to wait out the burglars.  Unfortunately, what they are after is likely contained in the room the two have retreated to.  For every problem they encounter, Meg deciphers a solution, only to be further thwarted either by circumstances or the burglars themselves.

What saves this story, for the most par,t is the incredible talent in the film.  Fincher does a tremendous job cutting this film in a way that keeps the viewer enthralled.  The cameras put the viewer in just the right perspective to capture what is happening while hiding certain details we weren’t meant to know just yet.  He draws out the suspense quite well with a dimly lit home on a rainy evening, creating an aura of spookiness as well.

There’s little I don’t like Foster in, and I ended up enjoying her performance here much better than The Brave One, which I had also seen recently.  Her Meg is no wilting violet, but she’s also pulling herself up again after wallowing in the depths of an emotionally draining divorce.  Without having to state it, I could see how different things drained on her, such as the natural inclination to call out to her ex-husband, only to be rebuffed.

The three burglars are portrayed by Jared Leto, Forrest Whitaker, and Dwight Yoakam.  They find a nice balance between the characters as they are bumbling in many ways, but also crafty.  Despite assurances to the contrary, Junior (Leto) hasn’t thought this through as he should have, and their plan suffers for it.  The house isn’t empty, and once they are in that deep, they stay to see it all the way through.  What should have been an easy burglary has turned into something much more complicated that he’s not prepared for.  At the same time, he doesn’t want to pull back and say he’s in over his head in front of the other two.  The dynamic here does provide for a few needed moments of comedy in an otherwise suspenseful film.

The story is generally good, if predictable.  It is nearly a two-hour movie, so it’s pretty obvious the first solution isn’t going to work, nor the first few.  For the most part, what happens is believable.  There are a number of flaws people will question as they watch this, as certain storyline-dictated events seem contrived just to keep the story on track.


SPOILER ALERT

Okay, it had me up until the cops arrived.  I had so many problems with the movie once that moment happened.  First of all, they said that Meg was moving from Greenwich.  To me, that means Greenwich, Connecticut.  I can’t believe she would have the time to call her ex-husband there, and he would drive all the way to the city, and all of this action would take place before the police arrive.  Even if its poor writing and they mean Greenwich Village, there still is way too much time elapsed in that her ex has the time to get uptown to where Meg and Sarah live and have the crap beat out of him by the bad guys.

Second, why did she let the police leave???? It’s absolutely ridiculous that she didn’t clue them in at all when the bad guys could see her and/or hear her.  If she wasn’t the superwoman able to save her whole family that she apparently believed she was, then help from outside was her only hope.


END SPOILER ALERT

The DVD is nothing special as there are no extra features other than a trailer and slides of the filmographies of the principals.  The picture and audio are both good, something important when dealing with a film relying on the shadows of night to convey the mood.  Too much difficulty seeing what’s going on, and you’ll lose the viewer fast.  Thankfully, that doesn’t happen here.

I thought Panic Room was a good film with some flaws.  Events that take place near the end made it feel like the movie was trying to hang on a few more minutes with contrivances instead of ending it where it should have.  Still, it does a good job with the suspense, and the performances are all excellent.