Panic Room (3-Disc Special Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Well-crafted suspense
Review: In this cleverly constructed thriller, Jodie Foster plays Meg Altman, a recent divorcée who purchases a New York brownstone to house her and her diabetic daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart). When three men break into the house, Meg and Sarah take refuge in the house's unusual "panic room", an indoor fortress meant to serve as a hidden and impenetrable haven for its residents. The problem is, the burglars not only know about the panic room, but they will do anything to get what is hidden inside it. Closed off from help, the women must rely on their resourcefulness to repel the equally determined intruders. Just when you think things can't get any worse, they do. This is "Home Alone" with a deadly seriousness. (The screenplay acknowledges this when one of the burglars calls another "Joe Pesce.")

The trailers for this highly suspenseful film made it seem more terrifying than it actually is. "Panic Room" relies more on tension and desperation than it does on sheer fear - and it is a much better film for it. Jodie Foster turns in a skilled, believable performance, as does Kristen Stewart, who not only looks like she could be Foster's biological child but acts that way, too. Forest Whitaker, as the brains of the burglary, provides complexity to a character that might otherwise have been a type; you can't help wishing that he was not a part of the operation. The camera work (not dissimilar to that of television's "CSI") works to increase the tension, although often it comes across as an effect for effect's sake.

"Panic Room" held my attention from beginning to end. I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a suspenseful film with good, solid acting.