First of all, for those of you that haven't yet seen this movie, a panic room is a vault-type room equipped with all the necessary supplies to withstand an invasion of your property. Designed for your protection and safety, it becomes a claustrophobic prison when the vigilante's breaking in want one thing, and you can guess where that one thing just happens to be stored. Yeah, you got it, the one thing they want is in THE PANIC ROOM!

Jody Foster plays Meg, a middle aged lady who has been recently separated and is now a single mother. Meg and her teen-aged daughter (Kristen Stewart) go shopping for a new home and happen to find a beautiful brownstone house with something that they've never seen before, a panic room. By this time, I'm pretty sure that everyone in the audience can tell that she soon will be trapped within the tiny concrete cell walls of that room.

As some of you lame folk (just kidding) may not notice, the director of this film, David Fincher, has become of man of the day in more than one occasion with his filming profession. He has brought together a few of my favorite titles : Se7en, The Game, Fight Club and (now) The Panic Room. All present the keen message of vulnerability and quiver on the world of human experiences. Fincher, in films above, is obviously taking measure of the intrusive undercurrents of American life. I would ask what does THE PANIC ROOM say psychologically about the people in "The Greatest Democracy on Earth," who when they become wealthy enough live in "gated communities" or have panic rooms in their homes where they can hide?

There's one thing that I noticed in this movie, and that thing would have to be the smooth movements of the camera rotating, sliding, streaming, and above all, flying around this beautifully crafted home. The camera searches and spies everything the the newly-moved-into house has to offer in seamless movements. The house is bare, boxes freshly moved in and yet to be opened, and the two ladies who seem, for the most part, defenseless in such a large home (just for the fact of it being extremely large for the two people living in it). The abundance of possible entrances are shown as the camera hovers through the "museum", and tension begins to frolick. How could they possibly remember to cover all of the doors with their chains? Obviously next, the bad guys find a way in (through the roof :). Expecting the house to be empty (The ladies just happened to move into the house a bit earlier than expected) "the guys" plan to get what they want and get out is confuzled by the presence of these new residents. The two women run for the panic room and lock themselves into a fortress and a half of steel, concrete, brick, and a seperate phone line. This, hmm.... seems, to be the exact location of what they have come to get. Now their plan is derailed and the movie gets a bit nerve recking.

Jared Leto is the "leap before you look" leader of the criminals. He provides unexpected but appreciated comic relief in what is otherwise a tense film. Forest Whitaker plays the "don't hurt the kid" criminal who is only involved to better his own childrens’ lives. Although he is one of the bad guys, his sympathetic outlook make you feel as if you hope that he gets what he wants to help his family and gets off scott-free. Dwight Yoakam is the "experienced" criminal and soon starts to anger everyone, including the other criminals, off, turning this simple operation into a more serious series of crimes. I think that his evil look comes from his major case of male pattern baldness.

Fincher throws every nerve-pinching technique at you. From slow motion and exaggerated silence, to rapid inter-utting editing and anxious close ups. This seems to make the movie a crack sweatting, eye-twitching, girlfriend-jumping movie on my part (sorry for the intense amount of detail there :).

It seems to me that a home is supposed to be a place where you can rest and relax. Here, this proves that even the move "burglar-proof" house can be infiltrated with brute force or forbidden amounts of intelligence.

Thank you, and I recommend this movie for a first date :) Have fun

Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older