So where’s the ‘panic’ in the room?

Film review: Panic Room

We don’t get to see Jodie Foster often enough, so it was with a fair amount of anticipation that we viewed The Panic Room. After her stellar turn in The Silence of the Lambs, she had wisely opted not to join the cast of Hannibal. But if saying "No" to Hannibal meant saying "Yes" to The Panic Room, perhaps we’re better off renting DVDs of The Silence, The Accused, Taxi Driver and Little Man Tate. The Panic Room does have its moments, but given that it’s supposed to belong to the suspense genre, I elect to relegate it to the heap of Jodie films that include Anna and the King, Sommersby, Maverick and the Apple Dumpling Gang.

Trailers of Filipino films go on for too long, giving everything away and practically substituting for watching the full feature itself. Previews for American films have always managed to avoid this pitfall, given the strict time limits imposed. But the advantage to the US system is that all the good moments of a film can be crammed into a trailer and tighter editing can help give the impression that the excitement, suspense, and chills are consistent throughout the film. This certainly was the case with The Panic Room, whose trailer held a lot of promise, combining elements of Wait Until Dark and the better Alfred Hitchcock films. With Jodie Foster and Forest Whitaker on board, there were high expectations for the film.

Maybe a clue to what one could really expect from the film lay with its director, David Fincher, noted for having given us Seven – the film that never really held up to the promise of its what was then innovative opening credits (which has since been copied around the world). While possessing a deft touch in creating atmosphere and mood, he needs a very strong story, with several twists and turns, to complement his forte; and not a single strand narrative, as he has in his hands, with Panic Room. This time out, we’re saddled with a suspense film that takes too much of a sweet time in its exposition and introduction of characters. We’re well into a half of the film before things begin to perk up. Even with the arrival of the Gang of Three (Forest, Dwight Yoakam and Jared Leto), there’s far too much time spent on discourse and establishing nuance of character. Fine, it’s good to avoid stereotyping of these villains; but this can be done without impeding the action. Look at Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels or Snatch, where each villain had his own character developed, but things flowed.

To say this is a throwback to the old suspense film, where character and story played a stronger role than edge of the seat moments is all fine, but one would expect far more interesting characters than this. In fact, the villains seem to be better fleshed out than Jodie’s character; even her daughter in the film (Kristen Stewart) seems to be more aware and alert as to what is going on and takes the prize for being the most resourceful person around. Maybe we have been weaned on too many Die Hard films, where action, explosions and gore make a fine substitute for plot, character development and twists. But there have been fine examples of the marriage of these two types of film-making such as the Harrison Ford/Jack Ryan films, and Memento (a superbly directed "small" film which starred Guy Pearce and Carrie Ann Moss).

As mentioned, The Panic Room does have its moments. There is one brilliantly choreographed sequence, played with a muted soundtrack. It involves a cellphone and it’s a fine example of what we were hoping for with this film. The somber, diffused lighting that pervades the film does well in maintaining the mood of the film. The cinematography succeeds in bringing us a menacing, different kind of New York. One particularly disturbing moment for me was the fade out on Jodie’s face right before the last scene. Things seem to have been resolved, the police have taken control of the situation and in what could be for Jodie a final chance at showing some depth of emotion, she gives us a harried, confused, still very befuddled expression. I hoped it was indicative of some final twist, which might have redeemed this film. But in what seemed to be a cop out, that expression is wasted as the film proceeds to end in a very banal manner, leaving us pondering what that expression was for.

This happens often enough nowadays – we find actors and actresses of note getting involved in vehicles that do not seem to give justice to the talent assembled. Robert de Niro has been particularly guilty in this regard and it’s sad to see Jodie falling into the same trap. As it is, the film could have worked with a number of lesser actresses on board. The film is competent, there are some gripping and chilling sequences; but wanting to like this film and be entertained, I have to admit I left the theater feeling the movie had not truly delivered. It’s a mild diversion, and given the glut of mega budget blockbusters that are inundating the moviehouses this summer, it gives us something different. Maybe we should wait for Murder By Numbers where it seems Sandra Bullock will do her take on a Clarice Starling character.