Sunday, March 18, 2007

Panic Room

It is finally time. Of all the David Fincher movies that I was going to watch over the last week, Panic Room was the one that I was looking forward to the most. It may not be his best movie but whereas the others require a certain amount of energy to just watch them, this is just good times. A simple premise mixed with great actors and a steady hand behind the camera just may create the perfect storm.

The idea that this movie was initially cast with Nicole Kidman in the lead seems like somebody’s idea of a joke. She would have been able to cower and act scared but not project the strength that Jodie Foster’s characters always have. It is this strength that makes Panic Room. There is an air of believability to all of Jodie Foster’s actions, from the pissed off estranged wife scenes through the terrified hiding and finishing with the sledgehammer swinging. The woman can pull off anything. Anything I tells ya. It is really disappointing that it has taken 20 years for Forest Whitaker to get the press that he deserves. Ghost Dog is the goddamned man. I am always excited to see Forest and, yes, that does include the cinematic classic Light it Up. For Panic Room, it would take some serious searching to find a better man to portray a sympathetic home invader. You throw in a braided Jared Leto and a ski-mask wearing Dwight Yoakam as his cohorts and all the bases are covered. Leto brings the humor, Yoakam brings the menace, and Forest brings the glue. Before moving on, I don’t want to skip past Kristen Stewart. She is funny throughout the movie as the smart-aleck daughter but her real talent shines as she slowly slips into a diabetic seizure. Now every one of these reviews since Alien3 has had the same structure, I praise the actors then I praise David Fincher. If you haven’t figured out by now, Fincher knows how to get the best out of his cast and knows how to shoot his movies. On top of the basics that he excels at, he always tries something new in his films. At multiple points here he swings the camera around up and down floors and over and through furniture so that the viewer is reminded of size of the place and how long it would take for people to move around. Fincher also excels at showing the sheer brutality of the violence that takes place. The highlight is the absolute mauling that the husband receives, up to and including the visible fracture of his arm. To finish up on the director, it is nice to see that with a lighter story he was willing to edit it down to a less than two hour running time. It is nice to see a director not overstay his welcome just because he has made movies work with running times approaching two and a half hours.


My enjoyment of this particular David Fincher film may be out of proportion with the rest of the movie going audiences along with the critics. Everyone flocks to Se7en and Fight Club, as well they should, but there is just something about Panic Room that I can’t ignore. The damn thing just works so well. You got Jodie and Forest delivering as usual. You have Jared Leto and his sweet braids. Plus one of my favorite combos severed fingers and blue flames. I am not ashamed to say I love this movie.

9 out of 10

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