Meg Altman: Jodie Foster
Sarah Altman: Kristen Stewart
Junior: Jared Leto
Burnham: Forrest Whittaker
Raoul: Dwight Yoakam
Stephen Altman: Patrick Bauchau
Lydia Lynch: Ann Magnuson
"It Was Supposed To Be The Safest Room In The House..."
David Fincher
(Fight Club)
directs Jodie Foster in this high-concept
thriller written by David Koepp
(Spider-Man).
Foster plays Meg Altman, a single mother who moves into a spacious Manhattan
house with her young daughter Sarah. The house in question has a relatively
rare security feature known as a 'Panic Room' - an impregnable hideout where
people can hide from burglars in safety. Of course, on their first night in
their new home, three intruders break in - intent on stealing a hidden
fortune...
What could have been a boring exercise - given the limitations of the
movie (the small cast and a single location) is thankfully far more
entertaining than you'd first imagine and plays to its strengths very
well. Tension is maintained throughout the film by screenwriter Koepp,
and he peppers the story with edgy set pieces and enough narrative
twists to keep audiences on their toes until the end.
Foster impresses as the gutsy mother, bringing her particular brand of
intelligence, raw emotion and determination to the heroine role.
Newcomer Kirsten Stewart is good value as Foster's screen daughter,
sharing an androgynous physical similarity with Foster and lending some
solid acting support in an underwritten role.
Elsewhere, Forrest Whittaker plays the most rounded character, Burnham,
the good-natured burglar in conflict about the crime. Whittaker is an
actor who's always been overlooked by the Hollywood big-time, but his
performances are always touching and heartfelt.
Jared Leto (a Fincher favourite) takes the most outspoken role as the
lead burglar, and also proves he is a versatile young actor to be
watched (is Leto really the same actor who gave an introspective
performance in
Requiem For A Dream?)
Leto has plenty of screen charisma, and becomes the most amusing facet of the
movie.
David Fincher directs the picture with more restrain than usual -
mainly down to the nature of the slow-burning screenplay and practical
limitations. But there are still many typically Fincher flourished of
brilliance - another fine sequence of opening titles and a wonderful
use of a "virtual camera" that swoops freely through the house like a ghost
between coffee cup handles and through walls.
However, despite its undeniable excellence in key areas of filmmaking,
Panic Room is a little less than the sum of its parts. It's
consistently entertaining and moderately involving, but never really
rises to the level we've come to expect from Fincher. This is a
by-the-numbers movie orchestrated by a modern auteur of cinema, so no
matter how fine the performances or excellent the direction, Panic
Room is merely a successful experiment in high-concept thrillers.
Overall then, "Panic Room" is a very good movie, just not a great movie.
It lacks that indefinable quality to become a miniature classic -
despite David Fincher's talented efforts to squeeze every nuance out of
the story. Most people should find the film a diverting night's
viewing... but it's just not a particularly filling experience, and
should even fade quite fast in the memory even for Fincher's fans.
Panic Room arrives on Region 1 DVD as a 'SuperBit Edition' in a
wafer-slim cardboard case with a two-fold inside that contains the
single disk. The artwork is minimalist and stylish throughout, but what
keeps sticking in the memory is the centimetre-wide case! It may not be
the sturdiest addition to your collection, but your shelf-space would
treble if all DVDs came this thin!
The animated menu screens are very good. They take the form of a CGI
version of the movie's house, where a "virtual camera" swoops through
the building to highlight various options. Of particular note is the
Scene Access sub-menu, which uses the rows of monitors from the film to
display each selectable scene - a nice touch.
For the first time I finally get my hands on a SuperBit DVD. SuperBit
DVDs are regular DVD disks without the abundance of extra features
(just a trailer and photo galleries usually). Thus the space freed up on
SuperBit disks means the makers can increase the "bit-rate" of the movie
itself - which fundamentally means a clearer picture and better sound.
To be honest, not all SuperBit DVDs are noticeably better than their
"normal" counterparts - with only people using high-performance TV's and
sound systems enjoying the full benefit of a higher bit-rate. But if you
buy DVDs for the films, and rarely look at the extra features, SuperBit
editions should be your preference.
Panic Room has an average bit-rate count of 7.0, which isn't really an
abnormally high rate compared with many other non-SuperBit DVDs these
days. Still, the 2.35:1 (anamorphic) transfer is very good, although
hardly as rich in detail as you would perhaps expect (nay, demand?) from
a SuperBit.
On the sound front, first of all: beware. My DVD player chose to automatically
play the movie in Dolby Stereo - so make sure you confirm the movie is running
its Dolby Digital D5.1 or DTS track before you get too far into the
film!
The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is good, with plenty of atmospherics and
ambience flooding your room from the rear speakers and front left/right.
Given the slow, quiet nature of the movie - this isn't exactly a demo
disk to show your mates, but it does a good job of delivering the
restrained tension of the movie's visuals.
As explained above, being a SuperBit edition means fans of David Fincher
are left with a barebones release extras-wise. The DVD manages just a
Theatrical Teaser (very good), a Photo Gallery and some boring
filmographies.
I'm sure a "normal" edition laden with extra features will arrive soon,
but is this a sign of things to come? Will all releases make their DVD
debuts on SuperBit? Personally, I can't see why all DVDs can't be
2-disc releases (one disk SuperBit and one regular disk with extra
material). Two-disk sets are almost becoming the norm anyway! I'll leave
you to discuss...
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
