Panic Room Reviews

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back, I was quite eager to check it out again. In fact, the first time I saw the damned thing was in the movie theatre when it was released and I never saw it again since then. At least, until this rewatch obviously. Anyway, even the second time around, I'm afraid this movie is still David Fincher's weakest directorial effort so far. I don’t know, it seems that after directing 3 critically acclaimed features and among those, arguably 2 of the best movies ever made (‘Seven’ and ‘Fight Club’), it seems that the guy wanted to take a break and make something much more basic and simple. I mean, the die-hard fans could argue otherwise, but there was nothing really amazing about this movie and even Fincher himself described it, at some point, as a low-budget B-film. Of course, it was still not bad at all and the whole thing looked terrific, I wouldn't expect less from such a director, and it was still fairly entertaining. The point is that there was, as pointed out before, in contrary to all the other movies made by Fincher, an obvious lack of ambition to make something else, something brilliant, and as a result we ended up with a solid but still rather generic thriller. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was so far the only rather forgettable movie coming from this amazing director, it is a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in David Fincher’s work.

Panic Room is a film that I just thought was absolutely fantastic because of its pure entertainment and how well it was filmed. Panic Room seems like a horror film when you first see the poster and/or trailer but it isn't a horror film in any way whatsoever. It is an extremely tense suspenseful thrill ride that feels like the original adaptation of Flightplan. They are different stories but are very similar regarding what the suspense was like and how entertaining it was. Panic Room was full of thrilling scenes that would not stop. I just loved the suspense within the film and how thrilled I was by it. To be honest, I have always loved thrillers like this because it is quite a silly story but it is tense and fun. I feel it to be pretty much the same thing with Flightplan apart from Flightplan is better.


Jodie Foster's performance is in my case the first of playing silly yet really thrilling characters. She does this in her most recent films. Other similarities to her character in Panic Room are Flightplan and The Brave One. That is why I love Meg's character. Meg is a recently divorced mother of daughter Sarah who has diabetes and are staying in a four-story townhouse that was previously owned by a disabled, repulsive millionaire. Meg and Sarah end up in an awkward situation obviously when three burglars enter her house but they end up in a room where there isn't really any air to breath through. Kristen Stewart was only 12 years old when Panic Room was released and she didn't earn very much credit like she deserves. I like Kristen Stewart in films now. Her performances in Panic Room, Zathura, Into The Wild and possibly Twilight are her most memorable ones. She is a talented actress for only being at such a young age. I think she's only 18 years old. Forest Whitaker was good as leader of the thugs who broke into the mansion. He was a real bad-ass character but he was a character that did reveal a light side to him as the film carried on and when he was losing his cool with Meg and Sarah. He was quite funny as well. It was quite funny with a very dark Home Alone-like feeling towards that.


Fincher's directing on Panic Room was a lot like Nolan's directing on Insomnia. Fincher has been a director of psychological thrillers and crime thrillers but this one is just a normal entertaining thriller. Fincher has directed a film with brilliant characters and with a very simple story. The script was good but in some scenes it was a little all over the place and in a bit of a muddle but it adapted well in the end. Overall, Panic Room is a very thrilling piece of entertainment that will keep you off the edge of your seat right until the end. This is another awesome Jodie Foster piece of entertainment. This is the only Fincher film that is just for entertainment in my opinion.


I enjoyed Panic Room more than Zodiac and Alien3 but not as much as The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, Fight Club or Seven. I still need to see The Game. Panic Room is a film that I just think is amazing for its entertainment. Reminds me a lot of Flightplan apart from that one is better. Panic Room is a really good film!

''This is what I do; if some idiot with a sledgehammer could break in do you really think I'd still have a job?''

A woman and her teenage daughter become imprisoned in the panic room of their own house by 3 criminals.

Jodie Foster: Meg Altman

Kristen Stewart: Sarah Altman

Forest Whitaker: Burnham

David Fincher has made a number of films I'm a huge fan of. Ranging from Zodiac to Seven. Panic Room; Fincher delivers again, a tense fired-up fast paced thriller. He has a talent for using every trick in the book in a way that perfectly merges with the material. He also always makes the most out of every script, which means the comparative quality of the movie relies strongly on the quality of the script Fincher has to work from.
Alien 3 was a false start for Fincher, a mangled and predictable script made merely watchable by excellent direction and some good acting.
In the cases of Se7en and Fight Club the screenplays were brilliant and so are the pieces themselves.



I won't even begin summing up all the loop holes Writer David Koepp has come up with. The fact he's aware of some of them (a villain says `we could've done that' after Jodie Foster's Meg Altman smashes the cameras) doesn't make them any less dumb. There's a case to be made for characters not behaving completely rational in the circumstances the movie presents, but Panic Room frequently stretched my ability to suspend my disbelief. Fincher does a good job of masking most of them, but no amount of great directing could ever compensate for the script's inclination towards cheap thrills.

[Meg smashes the house's security cameras with a sledgehammer]
Raoul: Why the hell didn't we do that?

Koepp's screenplay is conceptually quite strong but turns out to be not only a shelter for plot holes you could build a panic room in, but also a collection of ideas that you could call 'tried-and-tested'. I would rather call them tired-and-testing. You've heard the derogatory terms before; it's Die Hard in a house! or it's an adult Home Alone.
There's truth to both labels, but it goes beyond that. A scene echoing Rear Window I can forgive, but does that cops-knocking-on-the-door sequence have to be lifted from Bound? And is it just me or does the (in itself excellent) opening sequence merely update the one from North by Northwest? Then there's the use of plot devices so familiar you have trouble actually remembering in what film you've seen it before (because it's ten movies, not one). The best example may be the diabetic kid fitted as standard.

Another thing I appreciate in Fincher's other films is the amount of depth he finds room for. One thing becomes clear when watching this film, it's Fincher's homage to Hitchcock project, a thriller played straight with some technical wizardry supporting it (lots of CG camerawork and a reverse dolly zoom, a technique pioneered by Hitch in Vertigo, as the final shot), but a thriller which mainly goes for suspense. While Fincher's direction goes a long way in the suspense department (he cleverly bypasses the predictability of the screenplay) he doesn't seem to have applied any knowledge about why (certain) Hitchcock films are still interesting. Those films' main strength are the strong psychological themes throughout (Psycho, Rear Window and Vertigo). While Koepp makes some desperate resort to Altman's claustrophobia, it doesn't really go for that angle. In fact it doesn't seem to go for any psychological angle at all. As such, I found it too plot driven and lacking characters I really connected with. That lack of depth in any sense may not kill the movie, but it does reinforce my impression that this is Fincher's 'good-career-move' flick. A straight, stylish thriller with plenty box office potential but little substance. It feels somewhat like a film to rebound his career after cult hit Fight Club became a box office dud.

''I spent the last 12 years of my life building rooms like this specifically to keep out people like us.''

BUT....like I said, while the writing on this film isn't anything to be proud of, in terms of bringing it to screen there are little errors. Fincher succeeds in drawing tension from the most trivial of scenes, using his trademark bag of tricks. He's helped by Howard Shore's fitting soundtrack as well. Again every one of his shots is interesting in itself while they still serve a function, which is atmosphere. It's not as doom-laden as Se7en but threat is always sustained throughout. Panic Room isn't simply stylistically satisfying the way most Hollywood movies are nowadays. It goes beyond that. Technically, this really is a masterpiece. Also, Fincher gets the best out of his cast. Foster has a few truly wonderful (short and emotional) beats, while also showing being capable of handling a physical role such as Meg's. And the triple act of the burglars works wonders, even if Dwight Yoakam goes far OTT by the end.

I've lost count of the times I've watched this thrill ride. Camera angles, intelligent vantage points and multiple split screen shots which work to great effect. The music and sounds really do add to the tension also providing shocks and electric to certain scenes. In the guise of long dreary tones, that if you have ever played the original Resident Evil in the mansion, the same isolated helpless melody is used here, to great effect.

Jodie Foster a veteran actress is top notch class as a damaged fragile mother warily looking out for her daughter. Kristen Stewart also gives a performance worthy of note.
Jared Leto, Dwight Yoakam and Forest Whitaker also flesh out their characters to great effect, granted Dwight as Raoul is in a mask for most of the duration of the film.

For all it's tension there is humour also and some brilliant action sequences as Meg and daughter outwit their captives, the burglars.
One of my secondary fave thrillers, David Fincher continues to make smart slick films that give something for your mind to chew on.

''It's disgusting how much I love you.''

"I spent the last 12 years of my life building rooms like this specifically to keep out people like us"

Considering David Fincher's stellar reputation with thrillers, I expected significantly more from Panic Room: a film that turned out to be preposterous, derisorily corny thriller yarn that represents the low point of Fincher's career. (The film is even worse than Alien 3 - now that is saying something!) Fincher is a talented director who brings intense thrills and remarkable camera angles; however the script is inexpressibly appalling.

Recently divorced woman Meg Altman (Foster) is now a single mother living with daughter Sarah (Stewart). Searching for a new home, they decide to purchase an expansive old-fashioned house in New York. To the naked eye it seems like a straightforward house, but it includes the latest state-of-the-art security feature designed for paranoid rich people: a panic room. Panic rooms are impregnable secure rooms intended for refuge during a home invasion. They are made from concrete and steel, therefore impossible to break into. Meg and Sarah become imprisoned in their panic room when a trio of thieves enter the house on the search for a lost fortune. Naturally, said lost fortune is actually inside the panic room which is now impossible to break into. Now it's time for the screenwriter to consult the book of film clichés: screenwriter David Koepp arms this film with every convention and cliché one could possibly comprehend.

The script of Panic Room was inspired by the increasing trend of paranoid people who install "safe houses" for extra security. This film is certainly no commercial for panic rooms; in fact it's quite the opposite. It's a good thing panic rooms aren't as flawed in real life! It seems screenwriter Koepp has no problem with moving from one predictable cliché to the next in quick succession. The whole package has been installed here - stupid thieves with one being reluctant, sick child who needs medical attention outside of the confined panic room, overprotective mother who never does one intelligent thing, etc.

I have no idea how such a dreadful screenplay attracted such a magnificent cast. Jodie Foster's performance is intense and involving. A versatile actress of this stature should never appear in a movie like this. Interestingly enough, Foster voluntarily stepped onto the production when Nicole Kidman had to pull out. Forest Whitaker is another of the generation's finest actors tragically dragged into this mess. Whitaker looks out of place, albeit determined. The rest of the cast are impressive, especially young Kristen Stewart.

Whether director David Fincher is your cup of tea or not, you cannot deny that the man has a good eye for detail. Throughout the movie we have elegant cinematography and meticulously detailed shots executed with excellent special effects. The first half of the movie is suspenseful and effective...as the second half commences you will realise how dreadful the script truly is. There is no intensity anymore and the character development appears to be for nothing. As the film kept dragging on I had hoped that the climax would be the film's saving grace. Instead the climax is the poorest part of the movie.

While I was watching Panic Room I wished that I had a panic room of my own - so I could escape this film! Fincher's stylish directing and the top-notch performances from the cast are the only positive aspects of this film. The script is just too horrible for words. This is your typical fluffy Hollywood thriller: convoluted, silly, stupid, filled with plot holes and...did I mention stupid?