Movie Review: Panic Room

Panic Room

Jodie Foster is an unhappy wife whose wealthy husband has left her for another woman. She and her daughter find a new home in a turn-of-the-century New York brownstone, vacant because its rich and very paranoid former owner has died. Among other modernizations made to the home is a so-called "panic room", a concrete and steel box where residents can shut themselves safely away from intruders until the police can arrive. The new owners don't think much of the idea until they find themselves scrambling to lock themselves in the room when the house is invaded in the middle of the night. Why did these men break in? What do they want? How far will they go to get it? As the woman and her daughter learn the answers to these questions, they learn something about themselves and each other as well.

As we've come to expect, Jodie Foster gives her usual high-caliber performance. Her emotional pain, though understated, is obvious and wrenching. Later, her fear battles with her courage on her face and in her physical expression. As good as Foster is, however, she's nearly upstaged by the young actress playing her daughter, 11 year-old Kristen Stewart. Foster isn't slipping; the girl is just that good. And Forrest Whitaker, doing a turn as a bad guy, gives his character real dimension with his rendering. Also worthy of mention is some very slick camera work that puts your eyes in places normally unseen and that, by virtue of its continuity, actually adds significantly to the feelings of suspense and impending doom. The set is also perfect, giving a mood-setting but unobtrusive background for all of the action.

For all its good points - and Panic Room is a good movie - I was left wanting just a little more from the experience. The suspense is never more than bearable; an obvious and important question is left unanswered; and the chosen ending was strangely hollow (could this have been an alternate ending?).

Family Suitability: The Panic Room is rated R for language and violence. While the language doesn't represent anything any 12 or 13 year-old hasn't heard before, the violence is graphic. I wouldn't suggest the movie be seen by anyone under 16 unless he or she is very mature; and I wouldn't recommend it for sensitive viewers of any age.