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| movies |
| Panic Room Meg (Jodie Foster) a wealthy single mother and her daughter, recently estranged from her ex-husband move into what seems a dream upper west side brownstone townhouse in Manhatten. The house comes equipped with a 'Panic Room' a foolproof security bunker that keeps out the burglars, contacts teh police, has an intercom and a vast number survillance mointors. On their first night, three burglars led by Forrest Whitaker and Jared Leto break into the house. Meg and her daughter manage to get into the panic room but find that they completely cut off from help... What is Fincher up to then? After the outstanding 'Se7en', the underatted 'the Game' and the vastly overrated half baked nonsense of 'Fight Club', he had etched himself out as a stylish original director with a flair for big ideas inside a seemingly shallow and flashy product. However with Panic Room you get the feeling that he just wants an easy time of it, sit back and not read any 'significance' in it all. There is almost a desperate necessity here to be light about it all, there are comical quips about Elmore Leonard and Titanic and even the trademark bizarre and uncompromising finale is toned down into a vague mess. The acting is great especially Foster and Whittaker and the camera glides effortlessly in and out of the walls, bannisters and floors of the brownstone set in some of the cleverest and most elegant tracking shots I've ever seen. There is also plenty of tension and suspence,it's a fun ride and Fincher hits all the right buttons but you come away thinking that Fincher could have got us thinking a bit more , that he knew that, and couldn't be bothered, maybe next time... 7/10 |