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Dan Owen reviews
Columbia TriStar
- Cert: R
- Cat.no: 06457
- Running time: 112 minutes
- Year: 2002
- Pressing: 2002
- Region(s): 1, NTSC
- Chapters: 30
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1 (both Eng only)
- Languages: English, French
- Subtitles: English, French
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: $27.95
- Extras: Theatrical Trailer, Photo Gallery & Filmographies
Director:
- David Fincher
Cast:
- Meg Altman: Jodie Foster
Sarah Altman: Kristen Stewart
Junior: Jared Leto
Burnham: Forrest Whittaker
Raoul: Dwight Yoakam
Stephen Altman: Patrick Bauchau
Lydia Lynch: Ann Magnuson
“It Was Supposed To Be The Safest Room In The House…”
David Fincher(Fight Club)directs Jodie Foster in this high-conceptthriller written by David Koepp(Spider-Man).Foster plays Meg Altman, a single mother who moves into a spacious Manhattanhouse with her young daughter Sarah. The house in question has a relativelyrare security feature known as a ‘Panic Room’ – an impregnable hideout wherepeople can hide from burglars in safety. Of course, on their first night intheir new home, three intruders break in – intent on stealing a hiddenfortune…
What could have been a boring exercise – given the limitations of themovie (the small cast and a single location) is thankfully far moreentertaining than you’d first imagine and plays to its strengths verywell. Tension is maintained throughout the film by screenwriter Koepp,and he peppers the story with edgy set pieces and enough narrativetwists to keep audiences on their toes until the end.
Foster impresses as the gutsy mother, bringing her particular brand ofintelligence, raw emotion and determination to the heroine role.Newcomer Kirsten Stewart is good value as Foster’s screen daughter,sharing an androgynous physical similarity with Foster and lending somesolid acting support in an underwritten role.
Elsewhere, Forrest Whittaker plays the most rounded character, Burnham,the good-natured burglar in conflict about the crime. Whittaker is anactor who’s always been overlooked by the Hollywood big-time, but hisperformances are always touching and heartfelt.
Jared Leto (a Fincher favourite) takes the most outspoken role as thelead burglar, and also proves he is a versatile young actor to bewatched (is Leto really the same actor who gave an introspectiveperformance inRequiem For A Dream?)Leto has plenty of screen charisma, and becomes the most amusing facet of themovie.
David Fincher directs the picture with more restrain than usual -mainly down to the nature of the slow-burning screenplay and practicallimitations. But there are still many typically Fincher flourished ofbrilliance – another fine sequence of opening titles and a wonderfuluse of a “virtual camera” that swoops freely through the house like a ghostbetween coffee cup handles and through walls.
However, despite its undeniable excellence in key areas of filmmaking,Panic Room is a little less than the sum of its parts. It’sconsistently entertaining and moderately involving, but never reallyrises to the level we’ve come to expect from Fincher. This is aby-the-numbers movie orchestrated by a modern auteur of cinema, so nomatter how fine the performances or excellent the direction, PanicRoom is merely a successful experiment in high-concept thrillers.
Overall then, “Panic Room” is a very good movie, just not a great movie.It lacks that indefinable quality to become a miniature classic -despite David Fincher’s talented efforts to squeeze every nuance out ofthe story. Most people should find the film a diverting night’sviewing… but it’s just not a particularly filling experience, andshould even fade quite fast in the memory even for Fincher’s fans.
Panic Room arrives on Region 1 DVD as a ‘SuperBit Edition’ in awafer-slim cardboard case with a two-fold inside that contains thesingle disk. The artwork is minimalist and stylish throughout, but whatkeeps sticking in the memory is the centimetre-wide case! It may not bethe sturdiest addition to your collection, but your shelf-space wouldtreble if all DVDs came this thin!
The animated menu screens are very good. They take the form of a CGIversion of the movie’s house, where a “virtual camera” swoops throughthe building to highlight various options. Of particular note is theScene Access sub-menu, which uses the rows of monitors from the film todisplay each selectable scene – a nice touch.
For the first time I finally get my hands on a SuperBit DVD. SuperBitDVDs are regular DVD disks without the abundance of extra features(just a trailer and photo galleries usually). Thus the space freed up onSuperBit disks means the makers can increase the “bit-rate” of the movieitself – which fundamentally means a clearer picture and better sound.
To be honest, not all SuperBit DVDs are noticeably better than their”normal” counterparts – with only people using high-performance TV’s andsound systems enjoying the full benefit of a higher bit-rate. But if youbuy DVDs for the films, and rarely look at the extra features, SuperBiteditions should be your preference.
Panic Room has an average bit-rate count of 7.0, which isn’t really anabnormally high rate compared with many other non-SuperBit DVDs thesedays. Still, the 2.35:1 (anamorphic) transfer is very good, althoughhardly as rich in detail as you would perhaps expect (nay, demand?) froma SuperBit.
On the sound front, first of all: beware. My DVD player chose to automaticallyplay the movie in Dolby Stereo – so make sure you confirm the movie is runningits Dolby Digital D5.1 or DTS track before you get too far into thefilm!
The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is good, with plenty of atmospherics andambience flooding your room from the rear speakers and front left/right.Given the slow, quiet nature of the movie – this isn’t exactly a demodisk to show your mates, but it does a good job of delivering therestrained tension of the movie’s visuals.
As explained above, being a SuperBit edition means fans of David Fincherare left with a barebones release extras-wise. The DVD manages just aTheatrical Teaser (very good), a Photo Gallery and some boringfilmographies.
I’m sure a “normal” edition laden with extra features will arrive soon,but is this a sign of things to come? Will all releases make their DVDdebuts on SuperBit? Personally, I can’t see why all DVDs can’t be2-disc releases (one disk SuperBit and one regular disk with extramaterial). Two-disk sets are almost becoming the norm anyway! I’ll leaveyou to discuss…
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALLE-mail Dan Owen
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.