Reel Critics

Allen MacDonald

It’s a pleasure to announce that the spirit of Alfred Hitchcock is

alive, well and thriving in the imagination of director David Fincher.

Fincher, the versatile talent behind a string of increasingly large-scale

productions (“Alien 3,” “Seven,” “The Game” and “Fight Club”), has

narrowed the playing field and stripped his storytelling down to the bare

essentials with his new film, “Panic Room.”

Taking place during a single evening, Fincher experiments with the

thriller genre by squeezing every drop of suspense he can out of an

outstanding but refreshingly simple premise created by writer David Koepp

(“Jurassic Park”).

Jodie Foster portrays Meg, a woman who must forge a new life with her

10-year-old daughter after a bitter divorce. They take up residence in a

plush New York brownstone that has a “panic room,” a modern day bomb

shelter replete with an ultra-secure steel shell, food, emergency

essentials, plus a dozen monitors linked to security cameras planted in

every room of the house. The panic room becomes their sanctuary when

three thieves break in. What do they want? A multimillion dollar bounty.

Where is it? Somewhere inside the panic room of course.

In the opening frame, Fincher immediately throws you on a narrative

freight train. He has never been afraid to move his camera, so it’s no

surprise here when it breaks wall barriers, give you stunning and unique

points of view. Kudos should also go to Koepp, who has fashioned a story

where every detail is designed to heighten the viewer’s anxiety.

“Panic Room also boasts a riveting circle of characters. All five

central characters have to engage in a harrowing mental game that is

nothing less than intellectual combat. That’s not an easy thing to convey

visually, but this film makes a daunting challenge look easy. The story

twists feel fresh, although the audience strides ahead of the story near

the end.

The acting is also an achievement. This is one of Foster’s strongest

roles since “The Silence of the Lambs” and proof that her decision to

pass on last year’s lame, substandard sequel, “Hannibal,” was a shrewd

one. Forrest Whittaker hits the right notes as a thief with an

unfortunate streak of decency.

Hitchcock’s influence is obvious in the slow, masterful, creeping

camera moves that build tension as they glide. Fincher even visually

references Hitchcock’s own “Rear Window” early on. By confining himself

within the walls of the brownstone, Fincher has crafted a thriller Mr.

Hitchcock himself would be proud of.

* ALLEN MacDONALD, 29, is currently working toward his master’s degree

in screenwriting from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles.