Panic Room

Panic Room, the latest film from Fight Club director David Fincher, plays like an adult version of Home Alone with aspects of Wait Until Dark thrown in for good measure. A lacking screenplay aside, Fincher and his talented cast keep things moving along quite nicely to make for a fun, if slight, night at the movies.

On a dark and stormy night, the first in their recently purchased brownstone located in New York's Upper West Side, newly divorced Meg Altman (Jodie Foster) and her rebellious teenage daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart) must fend off three intruders (Jared Leto, Forest Whitaker and Dwight Yoakam) who have broken in to steal a stash of money hidden somewhere in the house. The Altmans manage to take refuge in a secret area of the dwelling known as a "Panic Room". The room is a high-tech shelter filled with surveillance cameras, a telephone and other survival amenities. Unfortunately, the room is the part of the house where the loot is stashed away and the trespassers have no intentions on leaving without it.

While elements of Panic Room are every bit as far-fetched as Fincher's previous work, it lacks the twists and turns that made The Game, Seven and Fight Club stand apart. You can thank David Koepp (Jurassic Park)'s straightforward screenplay for that. The story and characters are on the thin side, the plot holes are many and its resolution is very abrupt. Once again, the viewer is faced with a screenplay high on concept, low on substance.

Despite the literary debits, Fincher manages to keep your attention while delivering decent thrills along the way. Atmosphere is everything with a David Fincher film, and Panic Room is no exception. Thanks to some beautiful cinematography by Conrad W. Hall (American Beauty) and Darius Khondji (Seven) and Fincher's technique of moving the camera through the floors, doors, wall sockets, key holes, etc., the sense of anxiety, tension and suspense come eerily to life.

Foster is quite good as Meg , a performance reminiscent of her award-winning work in 1991's Silence Of The Lambs. She perfectly conveys Meg's initial fear and anxiety that gives way to a fierce survival instinct when push comes to shove. Stewart holds her own alongside Foster as Sarah, while Whitaker, Leto and Yoakam are also excellent as the home invaders. Yoakam is genuinely creepy as Raoul, Leto is very amusing as the clueless leader, Junior, while Whitaker is solid as Burnham, a decent man who has fallen on hard times.

Panic Room is yet another Hollywood case of style over substance. But in the hands of Fincher and his cast, the style is seductive and engrossing enough to make for a fun adult thrill ride for a couple of hours.

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