Many a times you find the simplest concept turned into a movie becomes a thriller of great magnitude and stun the audience and keep them glued to the seat. David Fincher’s Panic Room is one of that kind.
The Background
Meg Altman (Jodie Foster) is a recently divorced woman with a young daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart) whose very life depends on hourly medication (she has a sugar problem). With the money she got out of her divorce, Meg buys a spacious townhouse in New York. The previous owner, a wealthy eccentric, had built an unusual room in this house : an impenetrable ’’Panic Room’’, with surveillance monitors, separate phone line, survival aids, medical kit etc.
The Story
Meg and her daughter never realized that this room will save their lives the very day they move into the new house. Three men Burnham (Forest Whitaker), Junior (Jared Leto) and Raoul (Dwight Yoakam), break into their house in the same night. Meg and Sarah run to the Panic Room and shut out the thieves. Unfortunately, these guys are professionals and they know perfectly about the Panic Room, which makes the situation even more dangerous...
The Plot
Burnham and company are behind a safe full of valuable government bonds which happens to be inside the very panic room. With the room totally inaccessible from outside, the thieves try the only option left, try and get Meg and Sarah out. Another dimension to that story is Sarah’s medication is outside the safe room! So begins the game of Cat hiding and waiting for the Mouse to leave its hole!!!
Telling anymore will mean revealing the thriller itself. So let me stop here and start analyzing...
Story (4/5)
Good story rather a simple story well placed and filmed.
Plot (3/5)
Amazing plot of cat and mouse game, but this movie has not unexpected twists and turns. It is so predictable, that you wonder if the first line of my review is justified. Trust me, the expressions of Foster and Stewart creates that dramatic effect of a psychological thriller. But near the climax I’m still wondering how the full police force came to the door, despite..... I think I’m letting the rat out... Ok some small loop holes I should say.
Cast & Direction (4/5)
Few actors and properly selected. We were told that the original cast had Nicole Kidman in the lead role. But she had to bow out after her injury in the sets of Moulin Rouge. Oh what a movie it would have been if Nicole had stayed (remember The Others), without taking away anything from Foster. Foster gives her best performance (though not in the leagues of Silence of the Lambs), her facial & verbal expressions speak exactly what a woman would react in that situation, nothing more nothing less. Kristen plays the role of strong-sick-weak kid (in that order) to the perfection.
David Fincher knows pretty well that the whole movie is going to revolve around a house and particularly one room. So he has made some beautiful camera angles which adds that ’’thrill’’ effect to otherwise a regular movie. Not withstanding the goof ups like the motion sensor safe door still closing on hands, SWAT appearing without any call, the movie was near perfection.
The background score never seemed to exist. Or is it that I was concentrating more on the movie and missed out on it?
Movie Pace (3/5)
Looked pretty much ok. One should say the movie pace was normal, neither too fast moving nor very slow to catch a yawn or two.
Final Verdict (3/5)
Good movie should be watched once. No great twists or turns but at the same time it is compelling to make you watch it once. Watch it at a height, meaning don’t go into its nitty gritties and ask question to yourself. Then it is once-watchable movie....