Director: David Fincher
Starring: Jodie Foster, Kristen Stewart, Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, Dwight Yoakam, Patrick Bauchau, Ann Magnuson

- Reviewed by Tim

As a director, David Fincher has tackled some pretty big projects with even bigger names attached to them. In Se7en and Fight Club, Brad Pitt was there to help tell a suspense-filled story. In The Game, Michael Douglas got the job done. In Alien3, Sigourney Weaver did her best to carry a less-than-perfect story through to the end (or so we thought). The point to this tangent is that, somehow, David Fincher has been at the helm of these projects and, for the most part, has done good things while there. With a great cast, good script, some pretty intricate camera work and impressive sound, Fincher has made me a believer. 

Panic Room originally had Nicole Kidman set to play the lead, but when injury prevented her from going forward with the picture, Jodie Foster stepped into the role. To be honest, I really couldn't see Kidman in this role, but that's probably because Foster did such a good job.

The storyline is pretty simple in origin, but the human drama that coils around it is what gets you in the end. As Meg Altman (Jodie Foster) and her daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart) try to rebuild their life after Meg and her husband split, they settle in a large four-story brownstone in Manhattan. The unique aspect to this house is that it is equipped with what's called a "panic room"—a safe room to protect against intruders. 

On their first night in the house, Meg and Sarah are paid a little visit. As it turns out, the previous owner had a greedy grandson (Jared Leto) who knows that there is something left in the house that would be worth getting back. Since Junior (Leto) is pretty incompetent in general, he brings along with him Burnham (Forest Whitaker), the man who built the panic room and Raoul (Dwight Yoakam), a total psycho. With the narrowest of margins, Meg and Sarah are able to get into the panic room and out of harm's way. Unfortunately, as fate would have it, the intruders want what's in the room with them.

This gets you about 20 minutes into the movie—as for the rest of it, you're on your own. So many spoilers could be spread about, but that would make the body-clinching plot twists and kick-ass Jodie moments all the less of an attraction. Without giving anything away, just remember Linda Hamilton in T2 with the shotgun, or Kate Winslet in Titanic with the axe—now add Jodie Foster with a sledge hammer. Yeah, Baby!! <*Tim blacks out*>

The casting of this film was well done: Kristen Stewart is a total unknown (don't miss her in Safety of Objects, coming soon) that had to be cast, in part, due to the fact that she has the young-Jodie-Foster thing going for her. She the typical tomboy who seems to have wisdom beyond her years (or at least she is able to play that well). Forest Whitaker is good as always, with the understated intelligence that you wouldn't normally expect from such a character. Dwight Yoakam has redirected himself to acting, from success in the music world, and makes Raoul a very scary character that most people would be afraid of. He's just creepy! In fact, creepy would be a good description for this film. Go see it and see if you don't jump at the smallest of noises in your house when you are all alone.

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