More boredom than Panic - Fincher's Panic Room proves to be a less-than-thrilling thriller

Despite its stellar female star and talented director, Panic Room, which has remained high on the charts since its opening about a month ago, turns out to be a general disappointment.

The story is simple enough. Meg Altman (played by a chic Jodie Foster), recently estranged from her famous writer husband, Stephen Altman (Patrick Bauchau), decides to move into a sumptuous New York City brownstone with her young daughter, Sarah (Kristen Stewart). The prevalent feature of the house is a panic room, an architectural addition apparently trendy among wealthy homeowners. The room, located on the third floor, is airtight and soundproof. It contains a number of screens hooked up to security cameras throughout the house, its own phone line and a number of other emergency needs. Of course, Meg, who is nervous about the room to begin with, never expects to have need of it. And how wrong she is.

The implausibility of the plot becomes apparent early on. The very first night that Meg and Sarah are settled into the house, three thugs break in while mother and daughter are asleep. There is supposedly a cache of several million dollars hidden in the panic room, the legacy of the house's previous owner. Each robber seems to have his own agenda. There is Junior (Jared Leto), the moronic yo-boy ringleader; Burnham (Forest Whitaker), a fatherly sort who feels guilty about the crime he is about to commit, helping Junior because he is hard up for money; and Raoul (Dwight Yoakam - yes, the country singer), who doesn't say much, but hulks around masked, brandishing a gun. The three are shocked to see the house suddenly furnished, having counted on its vacancy for at least another week.

While the thieves stand around, trying to figure out their next move, Meg, who woke up to use the bathroom, spots them on the security screens in her room. She immediately races to Kristin's room and the two dash up to the panic room, closing the door just in time.

The real suspense of the movie begins here, as Meg tries to negotiate with and at the same time, ward off the intruders. However, the situation is a tricky one, since Meg refuses to come out of the panic room and what the thieves want is precisely in that room. One of the more impressive scenes is when Junior leaks noxious gas into the panic room, attempting to force the prisoners out, and Meg retaliates by lighting the gas on fire, causing flames pouring out of the vents. At some point, Meg, in a demonstration of unusual technical expertise, is able to access the panic room's phone line and call her husband. Arriving alone upon the scene, Stephen Altman is beaten within an inch of his life. As the night wears on, the situation becomes even more desperate; Sarah is diabetic and her insulin level drops dangerously low.

The story continues to the end in much the same way, although the suspense borders more on tedium than excitement. Limiting the film's action might have made for a tight thriller, allowing the filmmaker to concentrate on a few principal settings, but director David Fincher falls short from the success of his last efforts (Fight Club, The Game). The camera work is masterful, but almost too smooth, as it glides over surfaces and follows the characters from one floor to another in the house.

Character development is generally neglected in the film. The concentration on Jodie Foster's character has more to do with her heaving bosom more than her personality. There are a few lame attempts at creating a sappy mother-daughter rapport between Meg and Sarah, as well as shedding light on Meg's anguish at having been left by her husband for another woman. One of the more ridiculous aspects of the movie is the sappy redemption of Burnham, who resists being involved the whole way through. Character development may not be essential to a thriller like Panic Room, but some is necessary to keep the audience engaged with the characters' plights.

We can only hope that Fincher will return to the quality of his previous films in the future. However, Panic Room's success is perhaps indicative of what contemporary audiences want: a cheap, brief, thoughtless thrill.