On initial glance, it would appear that David Fincher has painted himself into a corner.  By giving Panic Room an initial premise which wouldn’t seem very likely to be sustained over a reasonable running time, and setting the film in one very spacious, but limited, 3-story townhouse, Fincher seemingly had nowhere to go with Panic Room, but down, and quickly.  Instead, he fills the movie with intelligent characters, presents them with realistic situations, gives them expected, and sometimes unexpected, but sensible reactions, and keeps his finger on the suspense button throughout.  He does this by fulfilling an unofficial niche in the movie watching process.  Often, we in the audience offer suggestions, or ask questions during or after a set of circumstances has occurred.  Fincher populates the film with the answers to any possible scenario or inquiry, and the answers work so well, that the tension level in Panic Room only begins to wain as the film figures out how to conclude things.  Overall, its an experience that will not disappoint, may inspire some discussion, and be a pleasantly sustained surprise throughout.

As stated before, the entire movie, save two short scenes, takes place inside a lofty townhouse Manhattan’s upper East side.  We are taken on a walking tour by a landlord, and an overzealous real estate agent, and shown the details which will become very intimate to us over the next 2 hours.  It is being shown to a newly-separated mother (Foster) and her tomboy looking diabetic daughter (Stewart). Near the end of the tour, Foster inquires about the size of one of the rooms, and the landlord states that there is a secret room conveniently called a panic room.  This room is basically self sufficient and independent, with 3 inch steel walls and doors, a separate power supply and phone line, video cameras, and rations to survive for a few days inside.  He states it was designed as a safe room for those well-to-do, who wanted to ensure their safety in the case of something unexpected occurring.  Call it an modern-day castle keep, urban bomb shelter or tornado cellar.  It was installed by the previous resident who was a wealthy financier and required personal care in his later years, hence the security and the elevator, things rarely seen in dwellings inside the city.  Of course we are being shown this for a reason, which becomes quickly evident on Meg and Sarah’s first night in the house.  Three intruders, one with a kind heart and knowledge of the security of the “room”, one with a knowledge and connection to what is in the room, and a loose cannon wild card brought along for kicks I can only guess.  Meg and Sarah secure themselves in the room, and the mental chess game begins.  You see, the thieves can’t get in, unless the occupants come out.  They cannot kill them either, otherwise they would never get in.  An interesting dilemma, and one that may not seem to be able to stand the test of a full length movie, but Fincher pulls it off to near perfection, by showing the actions, and reactions of both occupants and thieves.  Several times, the dialogue becomes secondary to the action, the music, and the intriguing camera work.  I will leave the details of how things unfold, and the various other events, for the film to unfold.  Suffice to say that Fincher pretty much leaves no stone unturned, and no plausible event unconsidered or touched upon.  Also, as John Dahl did in Joy Ride, Fincher sustains the simplicity of natural occurrences with realistic dialogue and doses of humor on both sides of the room.  The way he plays the chess game would make Bobby Fischer envious. The fitting irony of escaping intruders to gain safety, only to have the tables turned and be trapped, becomes a Catch-22 which is exploited to a patient and insightful perfection.  He does stumble ever so slightly in his conclusive scene, but it is another case, as with Joy Ride’s suspension of sensible thought, that is forgivable in the grand scheme.

Along with Fincher’s direction, the brilliant camera work of Conrad Hall, and the screenplay by David Koepp, the performances lend some strength and intensity to things.  This is obviously Foster’s film to carry, and as she’s proven in the past, she melds into the character to a near perfect pitch.  Her eyes, her mannerisms, and her vocal tone are all so effortlessy expressive, that we feel her anger, her frustration, her desperation, and her justification for the actions and events.  Coupled with Stuart, in a strong debut as her daughter, they do indeed make a formidable team.  But they alone would not have made this movie as enjoyable, if their foes did not present some kind of adversarial challenge.  The three criminals, similar in intent, but differing slightly in morality levels, have a chemistry that bonds them together, as they seemingly self-destruct and make their moves opposite Foster and Stuart.  Leto, nearly unrecognizable under the dread locks, is the thoughtless hothead, with the connection to the fortune, and his youthful exuberance, and cocky demeanor come across.  Yoakam, who is making a movie career out of playing unlikeable sorts, is the wildcard, who spends the majority of the movie under a skimask, and when he comes out of it, looks more like Clint Howard, then someone formidable.  But don’t let the the fact that he’s a singer fool you, his vocal tones, sneering looking, and deepset eyes, give an ominous feeling to things as they unravel.. Finally, Whitaker, whose career has been hit and miss, brings the right balance of calm, intelligent persistence, yet justified exhaustion at the situation at hand.  Fincher’s has given us smart people, doing things we would expect, answering questions that we think, and may not ask,

Ultimately, Panic Room is a realistic thriller, playing on natural human fears, cast with people who we believe in, and can relate with.  There is a direct proportion to the effectiveness of a suspense movie, to how closely it hits home with the audience.  In Panic Room, Fincher taps into the universal fear of invasion and entrapment, and then proceeds to take us down a believably natural path towards a resolution of things.  In the hands of lesser directors, this one could have easily spun off into a bad movie of the week, but using some amazing camera shots, as he did in Fight Club, and instilling with a genuine sense of cinematic claustrophobia, as the Wachowski brothers did in Bound, Fincher gives us one of the smartest films set entirely in one building, that we may ever see, and like Dahl, once he has our attention, he never lets up, and never insults our intelligence or tries our patience.  In this cinematic world where everything is carbon copied, simplistic, and by the numbers, Fincher proves once again that he is on the cutting edge, and possibly one of the heir apparents to try and fill Hitchcock’s very large shoes. 

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