(Alien 3, Fight Club, The Game, Seven, Panic Room)
Producers:
Cean Chaffin, Judy Hofflund, David Koepp and Gavin Polone
Screenplay:
David Koepp
Original Score :
Howard Shore
Cast :
Meg Altman: Jodie Foster
Sarah Altman: Kristen Stewart
Burnham: Forest Whitaker
Raoul: Dwight Yoakam
Junior: Jared Leto
Stephen Altman: Patrick Bauchau
Stephen's girlfriend on phone: Nicole Kidman
First things first. A Panic Room
is a specially-designed room within a house in which you can lock yourself
should intruders enter the premises. Styled like a nuclear bunker with 3-foot-thick
steel walls, you can effectively seal yourself in and there's zero chance of anyone actually breaking
in to get at you. Coupled to this fact is an emergency phone on a separate
connection from the main line and a bank of monitors, the cameras for
which survey every inch of the house so there's no hiding place for the
uninvited guest(s).
On a tour round the new property, since her split from boffin husband Doctor
Stephen Altman (Patrick Bauchau), Meg (Jodie Foster) is the first
one to notice that amongst the massive house she's taking a recce, the master
bedroom is smaller than she expected. Once this has been spotted, the estate
agent tells her she's the first to notice without having to have it pointed
out to her and, thus, reveals the aforementioned panic room. Of course, upon
first glance, her pre-teen only daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart)
remarks on the whole kit and caboodle, "This has got to be my room!"
As (bad) luck would have it, they'll find a use for that room on the very first
night they spend there because three burglars have got their dates mixed up
about when the house would be empty, but still they go ahead to take what they
believe is theirs because there's something they want that's in the house.
Guess which room it's in... and guess which one Meg and Sarah hole themselves
up in?
It's difficult to review a film like this and describe aspects of it in detail
because while it's bound to have its predictable moments and those which seem
a bit on the cliched side, I can't give examples as that would rob the point
of finding these out for yourself, but it's safe to say that it's not just
two hours of the two females sitting in the room while the three males stand
outside it killing time.
What I can say is that the burglars are led by Junior (Jared Leto),
who has a personal, vested interest in what's locked away up there and he's
brought along Burnham (Forest Whitaker) because he used to install
panic rooms for a living and, as such, knows that they're impenetrable. Hence,
leave it to mad foreigner Raoul (country singer Dwight Yoakam) to
do his damnedest to find a way. Raoul's an incredibly over-zealous and obtuse
man and Burnham certainly doesn't like him. It was Junior who brought him along
and he's proving to be more a hinderance than a help.
Meg and Sarah discover the
director was also responsible for Alien 3.
It's a small cast and all the better for it since that does away with pointless
tertiary characters who would normally pop up for a minute before going off
camera. Jodie Foster puts across a good reliable performance in the
lead role, but I was still at a loss as to why one woman with a child would
need such a big house, even though money was no object since her divorce. Her
role is complimented by newcomer Kristen Stewart as her daughter Sarah,
even though she spend much of the film looking like Macaulay Culkin with a long
fringe.
The burglars are all stereotypes but that doesn't cause much of a problem as
anyone trapped in the same tense situation for a few hours would hardly be
expected to have a range of emotions - you'd have a single purpose in mind and
would stick to it.
Of the rest of the cast, that leaves just Patrick Bauchau as Meg's
ex-husband Stephen who pops up just after halfway through the film and after
having his face bashed in looks very reminiscent of Michael Gambon to these
eyes.
Come out, come out, wherever you are...
As I said earlier, I couldn't divulge plot aspects that you'll have to see
for yourself when you watch it, but while there are a few predictable pieces,
there's also a fair number of slighty scary bits too - not such that you'd
jump out of your skin, since you can see many of them coming, but the film
expertly gives you that feeling like when you're having a dream in which
you can't run away from an attacker and the deafening silence suffocates you...
so it's probably not a film for claustrophobics to watch in the cinema since
there's no escape.
I was impressed with the clever camerawork as it appears to spin round the
house in an early scene letting you see all around as the two females sleep
while the burglars break in. Director David Fincher certainly gives the
film a flashy visual touch, but I would've liked to have seen more of this
kind of thing, even if it would've brought it down to the level of a pop video.
Before I close this review, a special mention must go to the striking, but
bizarre, opening credits, all of which are placed static in Copperplate Gothic
Bold font against the backdrop of the city landscape and town buildings. Never
heard of Copperplate Gothic Bold font? See the logo atop this review. Now you
have.
Film trivia: If you're wondering who played the uncredited cameo voice
of "Stephen's girlfriend on phone", it's Nicole Kidman, originally
slated to star in Jodie Foster's role but pulled out because she hurt her knee
whilst filming Moulin Rouge; and I'm glad because Ms. Kidman couldn't
act her way out of a paper bag.
...and likewise.
I understand this is one of the new Superbit releases, but the test disc I
received made no mention of this and neither do any online shops I've seen.
A Superbit release means that extra features have been sacrificed so as to
make more space for the film's picture and sound quality. In the US a number
of DVDs such as Desperado and The Fifth Element have been
given this treatment, but does it really provide the extra kick that it
probably doesn't need (unless the original transfer was pretty shoddy) or
is it just a way of re-releasing films at full price but WITHOUT any decent
supplemental material? Joe Punter might see it that way.
As things stand, the picture is dark (because the film is) - so doesn't get
full marks because it doesn't look as striking as a brightly-lit film - and the
sound creaks at every turn when it should perfectly recreating the atmosphere
I felt in the cinema, apart from when someone in that establishment laughed(!),
so there's no problems whatsoever overall. Also, with the extra space there's
room for Dolby Digital 5.1 and a full-bitrate DTS 5.1 soundtrack. Apparently
other non-Superbit DVD releases only use half the bitrate that they could, but
to these ears they still sound first-rate if the material is strong enough.
Then comes the extras: a two-minute non-anamorphic Teaser Trailer and
Filmographies for the main cast and crew members. These were the sort
of 'features' we used to get on early Columbia/Universal DVDs about three years ago
and I thought those days were long gone.
I'd rather they'd ditched the Dolby Digital soundtrack and filled the space
up with extras, that's if anything else has been put together for a future DVD.
As such, this DVD is worth a rental, but it's not the kind of film you'd
watch again and again. Wait for a special edition... I hope.
There are 28 chapters to the film, the subtitles are in three languages
(English - with extra subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing, Dutch
and Columbia's favourite, Hindi - I say that because no other company seems to
bother, although Warner have an affinity for Arabic). Dutch is also used for
the subtitled trailer, but it doesn't get a look-in in English (Why, Columbia,
Why?? You always avoid English subtitles in your extras!!). Also, the main
menu features creepy music from the film and similar animation effecting the
look of the titular room.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
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
