Panic

Rating:
Summary: Panic
Review: Panic is a story about Alex(William H. Macy)who works for his father in the family business. Alex is paid money to go out and kill people. No, in the midst of a Mid-Life Crisis, he wants to quit. He wants to change. But, his father forbids it. If, Alex quits, his father will tell his wife, Martha(Tracey Ullman) and his little girl friend/mistress Sarah(Neve Campbell)* Alex can't have this happen to him, so he sort of pretends that he is still working for him. *Sarah met Alex on the first day of Alex's visit to the shrink. They had a conversation. Alex kept in touch with Sarah, and they had a little fun if you get my drift.* I won't tell you the end, because I know how mad I'd be if I found out the end on the internet. I recogmend this wonderful Drama.

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Summary: 'I'VE GOTTA MOW THAT LAWN TOMORROW...'
Review: PANIC is another in a string of fine performances that have shown William H. Macy to be 'quietly' establishing himself as one of the best actors working today. He delivers the line quoted above just moments after being confronted by his wife, Martha (Tracy Ullman), about possibly being involved in an affair. It's a very telling line -- Macy gives it such an air of detached resignation -- it exemplifies the pivotal, life-changing crossroads at which Alex, his character, finds himself. It's a decision that he has to make -- there is no way to avoid it -- but one that he dreads. He is a man in a corner with no easy way out.

A first directing and writing effort for Henry Bromell, PANIC is a well-composed and intelligent film. The casting, acting, cinematography and music all combine to create a seeming oxymoron, a sort of 'relaxed tension' that builds as the story progresses.

Alex is having a bit of a mid-life crisis -- he's a son dominated by a cold, controlling father (Donald Sutherland), dragged at an early age into following the old man's footsteps into the 'family business', which just happens to be murder-for-hire. The only other person who knows what the business really involves is his mother (Barbara Bain) -- until the stress and unhappiness of his life bring him into the office of a psycholigist (John Ritter). In the waiting room he meets fellow patient Sarah (Neve Campbell), a beautiful, troubled 23 year-old woman with issues of her own, to whom he becomes uncontrollably attracted.

It is at this point that the viewer begins to realize that this film doesn't take the easy road. In the hands of another writer or director, everything might become nauseatingly predictable -- but it the case of PANIC, the audience is treated to a more realistic, 'inside' look at a hit man, indeed, a hit man with a conscience.

The DVD edition includes a few deleted scenes -- interesting, but just as well left out. I would go so far as to say that any one of them being included in the finished product might have actually detracted from the overall effect of the film. Clocking in at only 88 minutes, the film is leaner than many -- but that allows it to move along nicely, to the point, with the fat trimmed away.

This film did well at festivals, but didn't fare as well with most critics (Roger Ebert raved about it, however) or in theatres. Available now on DVD, it's one that viewers should take the opportunity to explore.

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Summary: Very Entertaining, Doesn't Get Much Better
Review: Remember your early english classes in high school? When you got to writing one of the first subjects would be conflicts. A finely tuned story is full of conflict, but not so overwhelming that you can't catch a breather every so often. But just enough to keep you on the edge of your seat. Man vs Man, Man vs Himself, Man vs Nature. Panic is a perfect example of just the right amount of conflict.

William H. Macy's character is a hitman who was taught by, and now works for, his father (Sutherland). He's unhappy with his life, he wants to quit. Troubled by this decision he doesn't quite have the balls to face his father and say so. He seeks outlets for his frustration, and begins to see a therapist. While waiting for the therapist he runs into Neve Campbell's character, a beautiful but troubled young lady, and falls in love. He's married, she's half his age. Yet there is much much more to the story.

Brilliant performances by all in a movie that was unknown to me until I saw it at the video store. The actors all played fit their parts perfectly. I was almost in awe at the end at the way the movie meshed. One of the most enjoyable movies I have watched recently, with believable characters that draw you in. It disappoints me when a movie like Planet of the Apes makes tens of millions while this one just slips through the cracks, unnoticed. Thank you Ebert for reviewing an excellent movie, many of your collegues missed it(He called it "Extraordinary...Two Thumbs Up").

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Summary: genuinely chilling thriller
Review: The "banality of evil" has long been a source of fascination for those artists exploring the dark side of human nature. Gloomy houses filled with vengeful spirits or twitching psychos hold less fear for the common man than the sudden discovery that the "people next door," the PTA member down the street, or the social director for the local church youth group are the true villains who surround us unnoticed, people whose very "normalcy" serves to mask the evil within. For only when the mask is finally ripped off and we at last get to see what we have been living next to all along do we come to realize how very tenuous is our security and safety in this world. What could be scarier than that?

In this category of works, "Panic" emerges as a genuinely chilling, emotionally unsettling psychological thriller, short on gratuitous violence and long on characterization and mood. Writer/director Henry Bromell has fashioned a dark, disturbing tale of a man named Alex (William H. Macy) who seeks the professional help of a therapist played by John Ritter. Alex's problem is a decidedly unique one: it seems that, since he's been a teen, he has served as hit man for his father (Donald Sutherland) whose mysterious, shady "business" apparently calls for the elimination of certain parties at the request of unknown "clients." Alex is a seemingly good man, devoted to his wife and son, who has somehow found a way to distance himself emotionally and morally from the heinous crimes he commits. Yet, obviously, Alex has arrived at a point of moral reckoning - for how else to explain his sudden need to unburden himself to this total stranger? Macy gives a brilliant performance as Alex, showing, in his totally understated reactions to the people and events around him, what it is like to be buttoned up so tight that even with all the mayhem and filial abuse he's experienced in his life he is able to truthfully say "I don't know if I've ever been angry" - even at his father who got him into this life in the first place.

What makes "Panic" so unsettling is that it violates all our comforting notions about the ties that bind father to son and family members to each other. Rather than setting a fine moral example for their child, both of Alex's parents, Michael (Donald Sutherland) and Deidre (Barbara Bain), have actually groomed him to become a cold-blooded killer. Yet, life seems to go on in surface ease within the confines of not only that family but Alex's own family as well. Alex keeps the truth hidden from both his wife, Martha (Tracy Ullman) and his 6-year old son, Sammy (David Dorfman), allowing them to function almost as any other normal suburban family.

Yet, Alex has other, perhaps more mundane problems as well. He meets a somewhat disturbed 23-year old fellow patient named Sarah (Neve Campbell) to whom he feels an immediate attraction. Tentatively, these two lost souls grope towards each other, both of them hoping to find in the other that which is lacking in themselves. But in many ways, Alex is actually a man of strong moral character in certain aspects of his life and he agonizes over taking the initial step towards consummating their relationship, knowing it will harm the wife he loves but no longer feels attracted to. Bromell's sophisticated screenplay refuses to spell out every psychological detail for the audience, allowing us to make our own connections, draw our own conclusions and reach our own moral judgments. As director as well, Bromell establishes and maintains a mood of almost heartbreaking melancholy and sadness. Characters rarely speak above a hush; the camera glides slowly along taking in the scene at a leisurely, unhurried pace; and the haunting musical score heightens the strange unreality of the world which these people have come to inhabit, a world that seems to call into question everything we take for granted in the area of morality, ethics and basic common decency.

The performances from every member of the cast (right on down to little David Dorfman) are letter perfect. Each of these fine actors knows exactly the right note to hit in every scene, never cutting against the grain of understated seriousness that Bromell has established.

"Panic" is a small, underrated gem that lingers long in one's memory.

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Summary: Great movie -- what a cute little boy!
Review: The boy who plays Sammy, the hit man's son, is about the cutest thing I've ever seen! He's just darling! He reminds me of that kind from Jerry McGuire -- "the human head weighs 8 pounds" Soooo cute!

The rest of the movie was pretty good, but I just loved the little boy's scenes!

Rating:
Summary: Great movie -- what a cute little boy!
Review: The boy who plays Sammy, the hit man's son, is about the cutest thing I've ever seen! He's just darling! He reminds me of that kind from Jerry McGuire -- "the human head weighs 8 pounds" Soooo cute!

The rest of the movie was pretty good, but I just loved the little boy's scenes!

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Summary: Bizarrely, insightful
Review: The depiction of how a man can go through life completely numb to his own feels, incapable of taking control or acting for himself is outstanding.

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Summary: At What Age Is A Crisis Due?
Review: The effects of job related stress and the pressures born of a moral dilemma that pits conscience against the obligations of a family business (albeit a unique one) all brought to a head by-- or perhaps the catalyst of-- a midlife crisis, are examined in the dark and absorbing drama, "Panic," written and directed by Henry Bromell, and starring William H. Macy and Donald Sutherland. It's a telling look at how indecision and denial can bring about the internal strife and misery that ultimately leads to apathy and that moment of truth when the conflict must, of necessity, at last be resolved.

Alex (Macy) is tired; he has a loving wife, Martha (Tracey Ullman), a precocious six-year-old son, Sammy (David Dorfman), a mail order business he runs out of the house, as well as his main source of income, the "family" business he shares with his father, Michael (Sutherland), and his mother, Deidre (Barbara Bain). But he's empty; years of plying this particular trade have left him numb and detached, putting him in a mental state that has driven him to see a psychologist, Dr. Josh Parks (John Ritter). And to make matters worse (or maybe better, depending upon perspective), in Dr. Parks' waiting room he meets a young woman, Sarah Cassidy (Neve Campbell), whose presence alone makes him feel alive for the first time since he can remember. She quickly becomes another brick in the wall of the moral conflict his job has visited upon him, as in the days after their meeting he simply cannot stop thinking about her. His whole life, it seems, has become a "situation"-- one from which he is seemingly unable to successfully extirpate himself without hurting the ones he loves. He can deny his age and the fact that he has, indeed, slipped into a genuine midlife crisis, but he is about to discover that the problems he is facing are simply not going to go away on their own. He's at a crossroads, and he's going to have to decide which way to go. And he's going to have to do it very soon.

From a concept that is intrinsically interesting, Bromell has fashioned an engrossing character study that is insightful and incisive, and he presents it is a way that allows for moments of reflection that enable the audience to empathize and understand what Alex is going through. He makes it very clear that there are no simple answers, that in real life there is no easy way out. His characters are well defined and very real people who represent the diversity found in life and, moreover, within any given family unit. The film resoundingly implies that the sins of the father are irrefutably passed on to the progeny, with irrevocable consequences and effects. When you're growing up, you accept your personal environment as being that of the world at large; and often it is years into adulthood that one may begin to realize and understand that there are actually moral parameters established by every individual who walks upon the planet, and that the ones set by the father may not be conducive to the tenets of the son. And it is at that point that Alex finds himself as the story unfolds; ergo, the midlife crisis, or more specifically, the crisis of conscience from which he cannot escape. It's a powerful message, succinctly and subtly conveyed by Bromell, with the help of some outstanding performances from his actors.

For some time, William H. Macy has been one of the premiere character actors in the business, creating such diverse characters as Quiz Kid Donnie Smith in "Magnolia," The Shoveler in "Mystery Men" and Jerry Lundegaard in "Fargo." And that's just a sampling of his many achievements. At one point in this film, Sarah mentions Alex's "sad eyes," and it's a very telling comment, as therein lies the strength of Macy's performance here, his ability to convey very real emotion in an understated, believable way that expresses all of the inner turmoil he is experiencing. Consider the scene in which he is lying awake in bed, staring off into the darkness; in that one restless moment it is clear that he is grappling, not only with his immediate situation, but with everything in his life that has brought him, finally, to this point. In that scene you find the sum total of a life of guilt, confusion and uncertainty, all of which have been successfully suppressed until now; all the things that have always been at the core of Alex's life, only now gradually breaking through his defense mechanisms and finally surfacing, demanding confrontation and resolution. It's a complex character created and delivered by Macy with an absolute precision that makes Alex truly memorable. It's a character to whom anyone who has ever faced a situation of seemingly insurmountable odds will be able to relate. It's a terrific piece of work by one of the finest actors around.

Sutherland is extremely effective, as well; his Michael is despicably sinister in a way that is so real it's chilling. It's frightening, in fact, to consider that there are such people actually walking the earth. This is not some pulp fiction or James Bond type villain, but a true personification of evil, hiding behind an outward appearance that is so normal he could be the guy next door, which is what makes it all the more disconcerting. And Sutherland brings it all to life brilliantly, with a great performance.

Neve Campbell looks the part of Sarah, but her performance (as is the usual case with her) seems somewhat pretentious, although her affected demeanor here just happens to fit the character and is actually a positive aspect of the film. If only she would occasionally turn her energies inward, it would make a tremendous difference in the way she presents her characters. "Panic," however, is one of her best efforts; a powerful film that, in the end, is a journey well worth taking.

Rating:
Summary: Can't go wrong with this one
Review: The movie was great. The casting was perfect. Donald Southerland and Barbara Bain give absolutely chilling performances, and as always, Macy's talents shine through. This isn't really a thriller, but the movie is very psychological and at times intense. It ends the only way it possibly could, and it leaves you with an uncomfortable feeling in your gut.

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Summary: little known?
Review: The only time I could catch this movie was about 2 AM on Cinemax (Cinemax wasn't showing it again except for this one time). I'll tell you this -- it grows on you. It surely does. It got very little recognition, but this goes back to the fact that Artisan didn't release it in the theaters the way they should have...

This is a very great film indeed, with surprising moments of truth and startling seriousness. I cannot praise William H. Macy enough for his amazing potrayal of a hit man under stress. I cannot praise him enough for everything he's absolutely done in the entertainment industry. He's one of the great modern actors.

Thank goodness it's on DVD. It's so worthy to be known more though, and the fact that it isn't known as much as it should be is sad enough.