Panic Room (3 out of 4)
Starring Jodie Foster and Forest Whitaker. Directed by David Fincher.
By Angela Baldassarre
Originally Published: 2002-04-07
Panic Room is a smart and excitingly shot thriller where the many faults - mostly in script - are forgiven because of its cool atmospherics. Not as mesmerizing as David Fincher's previous flicks Seven and the Fight Club, but worth seeing nevertheless.
Jodie Foster plays recently separated mother Meg Altman who looks for an Upper West Side apartment with her young daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart). Turns out the gorgeous brownstone they do buy used to belong to a reclusive millionaire who built a 'safe' room to protect himself from intruders. Well, one evening Meg and Sarah lock themselves in said room after three dangerous intruders (Forest Whitaker, Dwight Yoakam, Jared Leto) break into the house. Unfortunately what the thieves are looking for is exactly in that room. Now it's a game of who's outwitting whom to get the mouse out of the cage.
The story is pretty good even if the dialogue verges at times on corny. Even the ending ultimately is uneven and sloppy, but Fincher's wonderful lensing and the intelligence in which he constructs scenes makes the picture hypnotic.
Panic Room contains many terrifically tense moments to make this thriller one of the better films on the screen right now.
|
</ td>
