As David Fincher's PANIC ROOM begins, recently divorced Meg Altman (Jodie Foster) halfheartedly tours an old New York City townhouse with her restless young daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart). Using money from her divorce settlement, the unhappy mother decides to buy the spacious home. The former abode of a wealthy eccentric, this townhouse contains an unusual extra feature, a supposedly impenetrable "panic room" equipped with surveillance monitors, a separate phone line, and other survival aids, where residents can hide in case of emergency. When three men--Burnham (Forest Whitaker), Junior (Jared Leto), and Raoul (Dwight Yoakam)--break into their new home, Meg and Sarah end up using the panic room much sooner than they could have possibly imagined. And, unfortunately for them, these intruders are not simple burglars; they possess knowledge that makes the situation much more perilous.
Hitchcockian in its confined setting and carefully doled-out suspense, Fincher's PANIC ROOM is more straightforward than his infamous FIGHT CLUB, though no less engaging. Foster (who replaced Nicole Kidman after she injured herself on the set of MOULIN ROUGE) gives her best performance since THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. The thieves are equally compelling--Whitaker shines as a likeable, sad-eyed security expert; Leto provides comic relief as a talkative brat; and Yoakam is perfectly loathsome as an armed-to-the-teeth psycho. Although the film features some of Fincher's trademark hi-tech effects, its true bells and whistles are the excellent cast, the stunning photography, the moody score, and the simple yet thrilling story.
Review 1:
"...PANIC ROOM is Fincher's high-style testament to the cool things movies can do to make us jump out of our seats in the dark....Foster nails the role, giving a tight, focused performance illuminated by shards of feeling..."
Source: Rolling Stone
p.137-8 04/11/2002
Review 2:
"...Mr. Fincher has mastered the traditional syntax of cinematic suspense: the shifting points of view, startling cuts and slow camera movements that work subliminally to fill us with dread and anxiety..."
Source: New York Times
p.E1 03/29/2002
Review 3:
"...Efficiently directed, fabulously shot....Photographed in the darkest visible tones by two of the industries greatest, ROOM and its tilting/panning camera have a blast zipping through and around a dozen large rooms..."
Source: USA Today
p.4E 03/29/2002
Review 4:
"...PANIC ROOM sticks with us. Fincher works on a deeper level than just scares. He shows us the demons prowling around in our subconscious, where we really live..."
Source: Rolling Stone
p.80 05/09/2002
Review 5:
"...Fincher again demonstrates undeniable visual flair. There are swooping, insinuating camera moves, disconcerting rolls and tumbles, and all manner of bravura displays..."
Source: Los Angeles Times
p.C1 03/29/2002
Review 6:
"...PANIC ROOM rigorously and ingeniously maps narrative onto space....It's the internal rhythms of each shot, the counterpoint of images and sound, and the jolt of each edit that are inexhaustibly pleasurable..."
Source: Film Comment
p.74-5 05/01/2002
Review 7:
"...Eyeball it as a sustained exercise in style and suspense and it delivers. Big time....Fincher succeeds by literally ignoring the boundaries..."
Source: Total Film
p.98-9 06/01/2002
Review 8:
"...Smartly plotted, convincingly acted and brilliantly executed technically....[An] engrossing thriller..."
Source: Variety
p.35-42 03/25/2002
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