DVD Review: Panic Room (C)

Panic Room (2002)
Directed By David Fincher
Starring Jodie Foster, Kristen Stewart and Forest Whitaker
MPAA: R
Grade: C

Review by Scott Standish

With The Game, Se7en, and Fight Club under his belt, David Fincher is one of the hottest directors in the biz right now. Fight Club had such an over the top style and featured such chilling acting, that perhaps I was expecting a bit too much. Panic Room could never live up to Fight Club and its a completely different type of film. But even with all of that, I still came away from Panic Room a little disappointed.

Jodie Foster plays a newly divorced mom that has just moved into a huge brownstone on Manhattans upper west side with her young daughter. The house has a "panic room" hidden into one of the bedrooms. A panic room is an intruder proof room, an internal shelter that is supposed to keep the owner safe from any kind of attack. Once you are inside a panic room, no one else can get in and you can safely view the rest of the house with video monitors.

As luck would have it, on their first night in the house, the brownstone is invaded by a gang of burglars. Foster and her daughter need to use the panic room, but soon find out that the crooks have come for something that is inside of the panic room itself. An interesting plot device yes, but unfortunately there is not a lot more to this film. Its a basic hostage drama, but with the trendy twist of a high tech "panic room" attached for a little extra glitz.

Panic Room originally had Nicole Kidman in the lead role, but she was forced to leave the film after eighteen days, reportedly due to a knee injury she sustained during the filming of Moulin Rouge. Foster does a good job with this role, and Forest Whitaker is excellent as the lone crook with any sense of morals.

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