Panic Room *** ½
Directed by: David Fincher
Written By: David Koepp
Starring: Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker, Dwight Yoakam, Jared Leto and Kristen Stewart
Rated R (language, violence, implied violence, overt violence, and stuff hitting fans left and right)

It’s about time someone made a good thriller. Don’t Say A Word tried to be a thriller, but failed. Most thrillers today wind up with the protagonist spouting off a clever one-liner and then shooting the bad guy. In fact, a thriller starring Jennifer “J-Lo” Lopez was previewed before Panic Room. When a thriller lists a song in its credits during the preview, especially when the song is off of an upcoming album called “J to the Lo”, you can bet it’s going to be predictable as all get-out. And not in the good way. Panic Room is predictable in the good way.

I saw an interview with Alfred Hitchcock several years ago. To paraphrase what he said: Show the bad guys placing a bomb underneath the dining room table. Then, have the good guys sit at the table and talk about baseball. The audience knows that the bomb is there, but the good guys don’t. While the baseball conversation is happening, the audience is squirming in their seats thinking “Don’t talk about baseball, you idiots! There’s a bomb under the table!” Does the bomb go off? It might, and that’s what makes a thriller work – show something bad that might happen, and then pile surprises on top of that.

The trailers for Panic Room tell you everything you need to know about the plot. Actually, there isn’t much of a plot. It’s a premise. Playwright George Bernard Shaw once said that he never used plots. He had a situation, put characters into the situation, and watched what would happen. That’s what happens here.

Meg Altman (Foster) and her daughter Sarah (Stewart) just moved into a gorgeous house: a mix between a townhouse and a brownstone, or, a brownhouse. The house has all sorts of nifty things, like an elevator (the last resident was very rich and disabled). The movie gets its title from the panic room in the house. It’s explained in the trailers, but, to recap, the panic room is a house within the house. It has its own ventilation system, phone line, plumbing, and electricity. If you shut the massive steel door, no one can get in. Now, the last resident had loads of money and several kids. The inheritance is in dispute, and there are millions of dollars missing. Three people who know more about the panic room than Meg and Sarah break into the house. Junior (Leto), Burnham (Whitaker) and Raoul (Yoakam) are the bad guys – some worse than others. Then, things get messy. And tense.

I like David Fincher. I like him a lot. Se7en is a near-classic. Fight Club is in my DVD collection. I’m not entirely sure what his motives as a director are (the great directors typically explore their psyches on the screen: Spielberg fights Nazis and tries to forgive his father, Lucas relives his childhood, Hitchcock showed his contempt for humanity, Kubrick asked the questions that needed to be asked), but whatever they are, they sure look cool. Fincher started off directing music videos, so he understands pacing and editing – essentials for a thriller.

Now, for a thriller to really work, it has to start off slowly. You need to be introduced to the characters, details need to be shown, and all of these things take time. No detail is unimportant in a thriller. Often, however, the details are shown quickly or are not the center of attention. The first part of a thriller needs to move slowly. We already know that these robbers are going to break into the house, and the mother and daughter will be locked in the panic room. So, from the beginning, the audience is already anxious – when is it going to happen? Then, of course, it does happen. Other things are added into the mix, and we keep saying, OK – now what? How does this wind up? But, it shouldn’t be tense all the time. The audience needs breaks. Throw in a laugh, or a lull in the action. Fincher has this down.

Enough of my lecture series – time to get into the nitty gritty. What did I like?

First off, the story. I don’t care if it was plausible or not – it had me. I didn’t notice any loose-ends or plot-holes. Even apparent plot-holes are addressed. “Why the hell didn’t we do that?” asks Raoul at one point. The thing he’s referring to is obvious, but, given the premise, it’s understandable why the thugs didn’t do it in the first place.

Secondly, the acting. Jodie Foster is no slouch at all. The fact that she spends most of the movie in a leotard doesn’t hurt, either. Forest Whitaker is excellent. He has a very quiet presence on the screen, but he commands attention. Jared Leto – he’s almost a chameleon. I didn’t recognize him at first. Very good character actor. Kristen Stewart – I’ve never seen her before, but her performance is unforced, which is tough to find in a child actor. Dwight Yoakam – wow. This is only the second time I’ve seen him act, but he is very, very good. He was absolutely unrecognizable in Sling Blade, and he is just evil in this role.

What didn’t I like? Hmmm....

This is really odd for me to say, but the special effects. Don’t get me wrong – they were excellent. I thought that Blue Sky (the people who did Ice Age) did it. They did the FX for Fight Club, and similar techniques were used, but, Toybox handled the digital FX here. While they were very, very good effects, at times it seemed to draw me out of ‘the moment’. Things are cool, I’m entranced by the movie, and then all of a sudden I’m snapped back into reality because of an effect. This is coming from a guy who grew up with the Star Wars movies. But, the effects should add to the story, not remind the audience that they are watching a movie. Did Keanu Reeves really do that crazy bending in The Matrix? Of course not. Did it work? You betcha. Can a camera really move through walls like it does in Panic Room? No. Does it work? Yes, but only to a point. After that point, it actually detracts from the experience.

Is Panic Room Hitchcockian? It actually almost is. That is, if Hitch were making movies today, and didn’t have nearly as many issues, he might have done this. If you’re claustrophobic, you might want to skip this. If you want to see how a thriller should be made, you need to check this out. And, if you hate Dwight Yoakam (unlike me. I think he’s great.), you DEFINATELY want to see this.