Panic Room (2002)

The Age of Commercialism

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

A Masterpiece!

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Cast, acting, directing, cinematography and editing are very good with Panic Room. Despite some holes which are listed by other reviewers, the plot is not so bad. Yes, the events unfold in quite a predictable way but the movie is still very engaging with its fast tempo and suspense that never lets go. On the negative side, the ending turns out a bit cheesy with too much effort to redeem the character acted by F. Whitaker. One interesting observation is that with good acting and captivating storytelling, the plot holes become less noticeable. After all, engaged audience care more about entertainment than analyzing each and every incident with a fine comb. To sum up, this is a very enjoyable movie with its fast pace, unrelenting suspense and lack of fluff.

The film is well done and quite tensed. Most of the faults listed in the spoiler reviews are not faults, but highly frustrated viewers that are not very smart. The acting is good. And the tension is high enough the viewer won't notice the perceived goofs. Only the ending is weird and blows the movie. That last scene seems to have been added just before releasing the movie. Which gratuitously draws attention to the story. Yea, it is a heist story. And it's better than the ridiculous Home Alone. But there is no character development. And no goal. Just a two hour filler for some Saturday evening entertainment.Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch

Watching Panic Room's trailer or reading a quick snippet of the plot points towards the film being just another cheap thriller. However, what David Fincher can do with any script is so remarkable its really something to be admired. Panic Room is a simple story with terrific acting and setting. The apartment complex and panic room's visual intrigue has just as much character as Jodi Foster's persistence, Forest Whitaker's cunningness and Jared Leto's desperateness. There is a great build up scene after scene with clever plot developments that cause many twists and turns. The darkness in the dialogue is genuinely frightful and realistic to what would be an actual home invasion. Although there is a bit of a downward spiral towards the end the technical and stylish directing of Fincher is just too good to discount. Panic Room is a high quality thriller and worth at least one watch having not too much in the way of replay value after that.

I consider this to be a pretty sub-par offering from Fincher. An unmemorable and dire hour and forty five minutes awaits whoever watches this film. A fair bit of my dislike of the film stems from the aesthetics of the movie – The CGI was pretty mediocre and distracting (such as from the not-really-tracking tracking shots as we are taken around the house, through walls and keyholes and such). Panic Room has that crappy indistinct and cloudy look that a lot of modern movies shot digitally have, despite the fact that the movie was filmed with Panavision Panaflex Platinum cameras. In his defence, Fincher made this in 2002 and a lot of modern movies haven't moved on from this look, whereas he clearly has if you look at his recent films. With a premise that harks back to the days of Hitchcock, Panic Room sees Jodie Foster and Kristen Stewart locked in their home's safe room, as a gang of robbers search the house for valuables. Unfortunately, events during the course of the film become so far- fetched and unbelievable that your suspension of disbelief kind of commits suicide and you know longer care what's happening because it's so ridiculous and contrived. The script is a bit dumb, which makes it all the more strange that Fincher directed this. Best Scene: The opening credits were pretty cool. Apparently it was worked on for a whole year!