Panic Room-A Forest Whittaker-Dwight Yoakum Love Scene? Panic I reckon.
Okay David Fincher fans how does Panic Room stack up? The answer is, not too badly. Obviously, this isn’t Se7en, or Fight Club or The Game, but it is well done and a fairly fun time. It has that look and feel that you have come to expect from a Fincher film, in particular, unexpected complex CG shots where you wouldn’t expect them. You have to appreciate that.
The guts of the review couldn’t be too much simpler. Jody Foster and daughter escape bad guys in metal box. Yep, that is pretty much it. Forest Whittaker and Dwight Yoakum (don’t ask me how the hell that happened), who star as the obligatory interracial bad guy couple Hollywood has so come to love, spend two hours trying to force Foster and daughter out of their box. In a sense Panic Room is sort of like Home Alone, but with an adult and a bunch of tech at her disposal.
Of course, Whittaker and Yoakum have no chance of success as Foster is like a Yale graduate or something and we all know you can’t outsmart them. I mean they never make mistakes, look at Duvochny leaving the X-Files, that worked out well. But I will skip that rant in favor of this one, why should we, the audience, so willingly accept the interracial bad guy couple? In my personal life I am never afraid of black people or white people, however, if there is one black person and one white person, together and walking towards me, I load up my adult diaper and clutch my man purse. Personally, I am sick of what Hollywood has done to me via its Interracial Bad Guy Couple Device, it truly pisses me off. I wish the MBA’s and lawyers that run Hollywood would switch to something more obscure. For example, how about every time we have teams of bad guys in movies, there are three of them, one white guy often a redneck, one Asian guy and here’s the important part, one Indian guy or, I suppose a reasonable substitute would be a Native American. When is the last time you’ve seen those three guys walking around together up to no good? Umm? Never, well, except in Silicon Valley, I suppose, but that is so white collar crime, come on.
Don’t get the wrong idea, it’s a fun film, it’s a good ride. Is it predictable, yes, it is predictable. But most will enjoy it, as the acting is fine, the cinematography is, at times, excellent and the CG is really quite cool at points. Its just not Fincher’s masterpiece, its more of a “I need another paycheck,” sort of film. And let’s face it every director does just that from time to time.
Fincher does a solid job overall with the $40-$50 million they dumped in his lap, but, as I am so often prone to complain, yes, they could have done more with the budget at hand, but the film did top the $100 million mark.
The hypoglycemia issue with the daughter is contrived and definitely reflects poorly on the script and there are a series of mishaps and mistakes that are worthy of Gilligan. So on that front, I do have an issue with David Koepp’s so-so and only moderately successful manipulative script. Koepp has written some real powerhouse scripts (Spider-Man), but I am not sure this is one of them, and I am a bit puzzled by Fincher’s selection of script on this occasion. Maybe their friends, I don’t know.
Should you give it a shot? Sure, it has a lot of nice Fincher touches that fans of his films will appreciate. If you are sort of sick and tired of Jody Foster, who is the lead, then skip. Her, “I’m Jody Foster I don’t have to try anymore bit,” has gotten really old and it does hurt the film. Apparently, she was not the first choice and a different actress would have helped this film, but only to a point.
If nothing else the hot and raunchy Whittaker and Yoakum bondage/love scene makes this film worth a look–just seeing if you were still paying attention.
Story C-(Nothing to see here folks, move along.)
Acting C+ (Solid, but mostly a paycheck grab. Gimme.)
Visuals B+ (Some good visuals really help keep the film a float.)
Originality/Innovation B- (Fincher infuses a otherwise relatively flat script with a little life.)
Enjoyability Grade C+
Home Theater/HD Factor B
Overall Grade C+/B- (B- if you haven’t had your fill of Foster and a C+ if have had your fill of Foster.)
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