A Thriller- Hitchcock Style. Review on Panic Room Movie

The Panic Room is a taut thriller that would have made Hitchcock proud (if not a little dizzy) and, at least based on one scene, would probably put a big smile on Hank Hill's face as well. It lets you know you are in for a visual tour de force from the moment the film opens thanks to its wicked opening credits, which feature floating 3D text. The Panic Room's story (written by writer-director David Koepp) is deceptively simple enough to get viewers to lower their guard. It sounds a lot like a grown-up version of Home Alone.

The movie takes place within one house (and, for the most part, within one room) over a few hours would have to feature a number of good performances, and Room has them in spades. . Meg (Jodie Foster) a recent divorcee from Greenwich and her diabetic-11 year old daughter, Sarah (Kristen Stewart) Altman have just purchased a three-storey townhouse in Central park West. The previous owner was a wealthy, paranoid hermit who, in fear of being burgled, constructed an impenetrable safe room packed with food, supplies, video monitors attached to cameras throughout the house, separate phone lines and its very own ventilation system. On their very first night a trio of robbers (Jared Leto, Forest Whitaker, and Dwight Yoakam) breaks into the house looking for something the previous occupant left behind. Still reeling from her divorce, Meg tries to temper sullen Sarah's resentment, but drowns her own emotions with a bottle of red wine. She doesn't hear the three men who break into her home on the very first night she sleeps there. Up for a middle-of-the-night aspirin, she incredulously spies the intruders on her monitor and just barely manages to get Sarah from an upper floor and make it back to the panic room before they do. What follows is a mind game between Meg and the robbers, as they try to get her out of the panic room. It is an old-fashioned stalemate, with Meg and Sarah refusing to come out (for fear of being harmed) and the crooks refusing to leave without their plunder (or at least the surveillance tapes they know are located within the panic room). Each side cooks up crazy ways to gain advantage over their enemy, but ultimately it is a war of wills, with a slight edge to the bad guys because of Sarah's illness.

The idea of two groups of people in different rooms trying to outwit one another so as to gain access to the opposite room is an intriguing one. Director David Fincher takes David Koepp's and makes something special with dazzling technical work . Jodi Foster, gives her most assured performance since winning her second Oscar. Only the strength of her maternal protective instincts allow her to overcome sheer terror. Whitaker makes Burnham's conundrum sympathetic and the character works as a bridge between the hunters and the hunted. Yoakam once again proves effective at maintaining tension through a character's hair-trigger propensity for violence, while Jared Leto offers comic relief. Also notable is Paul Schulze as a policeman who comes to investigate.