Nov 28, 2002 07:45 PM
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(Updated Nov 28, 2002 07:45 PM)
The plot is simple.
Jodie Foster is Mrs. Meg Altman, in the middle of a messy divorce. She is on the lookout for a nice home on the West side of Manhattan. After rejecting many houses, she is shown a brownstone house situated on a busy street. It seems ordinary enough with the exception of one thing. It has a panic room, what is also termed as a safe room. Walls of concrete, a thick steel door, a safe phone, surveillance monitors, its own ventilation system, emergency supplies, etc. Her daughter is Sarah (Kristen Stewart) with a sugar problem that could turn fatal should her symptoms be ignored.
On their very first night in the brownstone house, the house is broken into by three men. Jared Leto is Junior, the heir to the supposed fortunes of the late and previous owner of the house. Forest Whitaker is Burnham, an employee with Manhattan securities who is fighting a custody case and is in this for the money. Dwight Yoakam is Raoul, a masked accomplice with a fidgety trigger finger. The plan is to get into the panic room where Juniors uncle has hidden a fortune in millions.
The house was supposed to be empty but its not and that complicates matters. It’s only a matter of time before Meg realizes that there are intruders in the house! She grabs her daughter and makes it to the panic room by the skin of her teeth. Literally! The safe phone is not hooked up so she cannot call the police.
Burnham is the thief with soul. He means to harm to the owners of the house, yet he is not willing to leave without the money. He is responsible for the designing of safe rooms. Junior is the sly heir who does not disclose the complete contents of the safe within the panic room. Junior is also impatient and bungles up all Burnhams attempts at flushing out the women in the panic room.
A desperate grab for Megs mobile phone and her husbands (Patrick Bauchau) arrival at the doorstep does nothing to ease the tension. Tables turn and soon the criminals are in the panic room with the daughter. Now how did that happen? There wasn’t supposed to be any bloodshed, yet one of the housebreakers gets a bullet in the head from his mate. I can live with that. Now how is Meg going to get her daughter back safe and sound?
Gas to flush out the occupants of the panic room? Try a lighter. It grated my finer senses that a supposedly safe and self-sufficient room doesn’t have a single bar of chocolate. Everyone knows chocolate is something that gives instant energy and is one of the main components of a medical emergency kit. A three-story house has only two bedrooms? What have they done to the other floors? A girl with a medical condition sleeps on the third floor while her mother sleeps on the second. Are we getting warm yet? A steel door which is supposed to have motion sensors so that anyone in between does not get caught, suddenly closes upon the hand of a criminal thereby severing his fingers. Did someone say safe room? After Meg turns the cops away from her door without so much as a blink, we suddenly find the SWAT team swarming all over the place AFTER another person is shot. Err… Who called them? It appears obvious that, after the first few gunshots and all the chaos and screaming and yelling and drilling and banging, etc, the cops are not coming and the neighbours are sleeping in another country.
The movie hasn't the power to capture attention. The camera moves are pretty good, good enough for a music video. The music is good, well tuned into the scenes. The actors, I’m sure, did their best but it wasn’t good enough to grab my attention. I can usually find some saving grace in a movie and this one had good camera effects and some good actors. The story left much to be desired. Maybe I should have left my brain in a……safe room?
