Starring:
 Jodi Foster
 Forest Wittaker
 Jared Leno
 Kristen Stewart

Directed by:
 David Fincher

Running Time: 112 minutes

Overall Crave Factor

The story works like this…

Foster and daughter are shopping for new digs with their smarmy New Yorker Real Estate agent (Anne Magnusson). They find a beautiful brownstone in the west side. We learn that the previous owner was an eccentric millionaire with bickering family. The nervous old man had installed a panic room. The panic room is a built in safe room, automatic solid steel door, thick concrete walls, a full complement of video equipment and a PA system. We find out that Foster is separated from her husband, who is living with his mistress nearby. They buy the place and move in. The first night in their new place, Foster drinks too much and we get several allusions to a mystery ailment that the daughter suffers from. They are just finally asleep on the third and fourth floors of the house, when 3 men break in. We come to understand that they were not expecting anyone to have moved in yet. Arguments ensue. Foster wakes up rushes to get the daughter and they run for the panic room. We find out that the robbers are after money in a floor safe in the panic room. The rest of the movie is a back and forth between Foster and the robbers.

The main problem is that the setup for the background of the characters, the house and their problems all happens within about five minutes. There is absolutely no lead-in. The thieves arrive, and we get their setup in another five minutes. By the fifteen-minute mark, Mom and daughter are in the panic room and we’ve got an hour and forty-five to go. Once they get in to the room, the movie grinds to a halt. There’s not a lot of meaningful dialogue, and almost no more character exposition. The characters are all one-dimensional and there’s no meat in the script for the actors to work with. The only one who gets a little bit to chew on is Whittaker, although this is the same conflicted “good guy doing something bad for a good reason” that we’ve seen him play many times before.

Unfortunately, without strong characters to anchor the tension, and draw you into the story, you just end up sitting back and enjoying the visual technique.

Fincher’s direction is adequate, and there’s not a lot of extra time or awkward pause in the structuring, but he seems to be happy with just letting the action happen and not really worrying about the characters and their interaction. The cinematography is crisp and technically flawless, and the little visual tricks that Fincher has become famous for are fantastic. Right at the curtain we see 3 dimensional credits hanging in midair, blended into the scenery like so many billboards. Amazing. Throughout the film there are lifts through floors, zooms through pipes and hoses, close-ups on gas fumes, slow-mo explosions of blue flame, the list goes on and on.  The problem is, not a lot of people are going to the theatre and plunking down $15 a piece to see the effects, and most of them are seen in the trailer. I know I was hoping for some really strong character work from Whittaker and Foster, and a little treat from Yoakam, I was disappointed. This has been sold as a thriller, but there is no thrill. 10 minutes of exposition at the beginning, and 10 minutes of hardcore action at the end do not make a thriller. This movie should have been an hour-long TV show, with commercials, and then you would have had a little suspense. As is you get a half hour of good solid film, and an hour and a half of boredom.