Panic Room

2002 ·
Panic Room — Movie Review by Karthik
Rating
10 out of 10
Directing Credits
David Fincher
Writing Credits
Written by David Koepp
Starring
Jodie Foster, Kristen Stewart, Jared Leto, Forest Whitaker, Dwight Yoakam, Patrick Bauchau

The Review

I knew this movie would be very good because it's directed by one of my favourite directors, David Fincher (who made Seven and the awesome Fight Club).  And it surprised me by exceeding my very high expectations!  Jodie Foster and Kristen Stewart play Meg and Sarah Altman, mother and daughter who buy a large house with a "Panic Room" (a safe room for protection from intruders) fortified with six inch thick steel doors, with all the latest high-tech surveillance equipment installed.  And the very night they move in, their house is broken into by three men - Junior (Jared Leto), Burnham (Forest Whitaker) and Raoul (Dwight Yoakam) - who want something in the house.  Meg and Sarah run to the Panic Room and lock themselves in... only to find out that the intruders want something from that very room!

That bit of plot is almost all there is in this two hour thriller, but it's probably the most tense two hours I've ever sat through.  The acting is uniformly first-rate, the music (by Howard Shore) adds tremendously to the atmosphere (the music was very much in the style of the score he did for Seven).  The characters are all well written.  With little bits of story- and character-developing dialogue in between all the thrills, I got to know the characters in the movie well, and the movie was that much more effective because of that.  And you get to see a LOT more of Fincher's visual trickery (remember the refrigerator-blowing-up scene in Fight Club?).  The camerawork is literally another character in this movie.  Do I really need to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it (when I could catch my breath, that is)?

There are several great dialogues in the script: the "GET THE F**K OUT OF MY HOUSE!!  bit was my favourite.  And in the tradition of Seven and Fight Club, it has a terrific and very inventive opening credits sequence.

More Details

Running Time: 120 minutes | Country: US | Genre: Thriller

Ratings Info

I rate all movies or game add-ons on a scale of 1 to 10 points.  1 is the lowest score, 6 is barely above average, 8 is good, and 10 is excellent (this score doesn't indicate something that is perfect in every way — it just means that I enjoyed it a lot).  You'll find that I tend to give ratings of 8 and above often (that's only because I enjoy whatever I'm reviewing!).  Reviews are updated as felt necessary.  Of course, everything said in these reviews is my humble opinion only.
Review Date 9 Sep 02
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The Author
Karthik

Karthik Abhiram

27-year old Taurean (birthday 15-May-82), Assistant Manager - HR at Tata Consultancy Services Ltd in Hyderabad, India.  Previously, did Post Graduate Diploma in Management from T A Pai Management Institute (2003-05) and before that, Computer Science Engineering from Sree Nidhi Institute of Science and Technology (1999-2003).

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