(reviewed at KOP with annie on Saturday, April 6th, 2002)
“I’ve heard about these.”
Some call it a panic room. USA Today had an article about them last week. I guess if anyone really has them, they’re either super rich, super paranoid, both, or they live in Montana and pray to a God that hovers above the world in a space ship.
Basically, a panic room is a safe haven. It’s a small fortress-type room for people in case of emergency. The doors lock and it keeps you safe from the big bad world. Forget A-bombs, these are for simple matters. Like if a few burglars come in with guns, you can run and hide and they can’t find you. So what’s inside a panic room? Guns maybe, food, water, basic survival asthetics. A phone…maybe some TV monitors to show you what’s going on outside. Just to let you know where that serial rapist is inside your house.
The basic premise of David Fincher & David Koepp’s new popcorn thriller, Panic Room, is this: what if a few burglars break into your house? And what if you actually have a panic room? What if something goes wrong? Will you survive? Will you fight back? Will you die a terrible death? Will the cops find you in time?
David Koepp has written a terrific script, albeit by the numbers in terms of popcorn fun. Yet it’s a total surprise that everyone who praises or dislikes the film seems to hark about how bad Koepp’s script is. What??? The fucking movie wouldn’t be in existance or half as fun if –not- for Koepp’s talent! If you don’t know (and most normal people have no idea), Koepp is a writer/director. He wrote & directed The Trigger Effect, a pretty wild paranoid thriller about a blackout. He adapted and directed Richard Matheson’s novel, Stir of Echoes. And his biggest writing duties were on Mission:Impossible and The Lost World. While Koepp is definitely not the sort of writer who features controversial or highly philosophizing antics, he does not how to entertain en masse. And Panic Room is just that, a popcorn thriller cloaked in doom and gloom and awash in dark rain. Koepp has written an ultra-simple script. Three burlgars played by Forrest Whittaker, Dwight Yoakam, and Jared Leto. A mom played by Jodie Foster, and her little girl by some newcomer who looks like a boy. Koepp’s script, thoug, is actually very intelligent. There are plenty of surprises, and while the majority is ultra-intense and paranoid, there are some big laughs by the Coen-esque burlgars (i.e. not that smart). It also helps that these burlgars present three of the best talents working today in film, even though all three of them are barely stretching in terms of acting ability. Leto is a cunning cutthroat, yet oddly amiss in what he’s doing. Yoakam more or less plays his Sling Blade character with even more blood thirsty vengeance (if that’s even possible). And Whittaker plays a villain with a tinge of heart, a sort of extension of his Ghost Dog character, who killed people but still bought little kids ice cream. Foster, on the other hand, seems merely there. She screams a few times in panic as if the audience is supposed to let her know that, yes, we know you won an Oscar…but you also were in Contact you idiot!
& while David Koepp’s script is wild and solid, David Fincher, the music score, and the two cinematographer’s (one of them supposedly got into a few fights with Fincher…I guess that’s why you can barely read his name in the opening credits thanks to a reflection of sunlight) have to get kudos for their work. The entire film is seeped in Fincher-esque doom and gloom. The entire picture save a few scenes is dark and dreary, with night rain slashing outside and broken lights and shadows and darkness. The entire film is eeriely quiet, with a fore
Panic Room is pretty mindless fun, even though it’s seeped in paranoia and violence. It’s nothing grand, nothing that will blow your mind. It’s by the numbers…yet it works. Koepp and Fincher should be proud, they’ve brought the entertainment back into the multiplex. *** (out of ****)
boding sense of dread that hangs heavy throughout. And while Fincher has admitted that his only intention was to entertain with a popcorn film (alas, he’s breaking no ground here as he did with the great scripts by Palahniuk -Fight Club- & Walker -Se7en-), this is a very entertaining popcorn film. And different because…well, unlike most popcorn films these past few years, it’s actually good!
