PANIC ROOM

US, 2002, 124 minutes, Colour.
Jodie Foster, Forrest Whitaker, Jared Leto, Dwight Yoakim, Kirsten Stewart, Anne Magnussen, Patrick Bachau.
Directed by David Fincher.

The first thing I noticed amid the critics' chatter after watching Jodie Foster being hounded and terrified in the press preview of Panic Room was that they were declaring, some of them unduly loudly, that they couldn't really believe the plot because Jodie Foster was so cold - there was no warmth in her screen presence. And this from reviewers whose sensitivity generally blocks out a tear as soon as it insinuates itself on to the screen. Since Nicole Kidman was to have appeared in the role but backed out at the time of her marriage crisis, they all agreed that she would have been far better, far warmer. And then they all might have liked the film. The conversation then turned to their disappointment at David Fincher who had impressed them with Seven and Fight Club. They complained that he was showing off, too stuck on technique with his prowling camera, especially focussing on the two second tour-de-force where his camera went between the handle and the wall of a coffee jug. That seemed to me to be pretty good for two seconds of film time. But, critics when they get together and try to impress one another and prove that they're no suckers...

Which brings me back to Jodie Foster as Meg, trapped with her teenage daughter, besieged by three burglars in the early hours of the morning on their first night in their new house. They had taken refuge in an impregnable panic room and spend most of the film using their ingenuity to ward off attack, to survive and then turn the tables on their intruders. The more I see Jodie Foster in films, the more she seems to me to be and to portray strong women. She is usually very objective in her dealings with situations and with people. She doesn't waste words and delivers them in a forceful, sometimes clipped, frequently measured style. Whether she is Clarice Starling psychologically fencing with Hannibal Lecter or Anna Leonowens confronting the King of Siam about the house outside the palace that he promised her, she is clear, logical and strong. And she has been admired by critics and audiences alike for these qualities.

In taking on the role in Panic Room, she has to play terrified, anxious about her daughter's health, and prone to a touch of claustrophobia. It is not surprising that, as the film progresses, she tends to take charge, fends off enquiring police at the front door and finally takes on the homicidal maniac played by Dwight Yoakim.

But what of her feelings? what of her emotions? She doesn't go raving through the house screaming her lungs out. She doesn't withdraw, lips quivering. She does not gush with anguish and, then, relief. Rather, she tries to convey by her concern, by acknowledging her fears, by her bravery, that this is a most frightening experience for her. Jodie Foster acts with her facial expressions, especially her eyes, with her pauses, her tones of voice, her body language which, when directed to her daughter, combines tenderness and strength. She communicates her profound emotions rather than her deep feelings. The critics missed this subtlety by which she conveys intense warmth. They mistook her reticence in overt expression for coldness and lack of emotion.

A suspenseful thriller.

1. This film within David Fincher's films? Dark? Mysterious? Sense of menace? The dark side of human nature? Confined inner dark spaces?

2. The New York settings, the exteriors, the season, the beauty of the streets, the interiors, the camera ranging around the house? The weather, the rain, the film taking place mainly during one night?

3. The camera techniques, prowling around the floors, going up the stairwells, the stairs themselves, going through the handles of pots etc? The use of the security screens?

4. The title, the explanation of the room, its reasons for security, its security itself, the various techniques used to make the inhabitants safe?

5. The plausibility of the plot, the sense of realism, the contrived situation? Audiences identifying with Meg and her daughter? Women identifying with the mother and daughter?

6. Meg and Jodie Foster's screen personality, strength, intensity, interiority, lack of expressive emotionality? Yet her sense of claustrophobia, panic, care and love for her daughter, resentment of her husband and the new woman in his life? Her presence of mind, her ways of combating the burglars, dealing with the police? Her daughter, age, experience? Caught in this situation? Seeing them on the street, with the estate agents, going into the building, touring it, the daughter skating? The introduction to the panic room? Setting up the situation for the film?

7. The night of settling in, Meg, tired, hurt by her experience with her husband, the prospect of the new house? Her daughter, her health concerns? Meg alone, the manual and fixing the security? The celebration, the pizza? Mother and daughter arguments? Settling down for the night?

8. The three burglars and their approach, outside the house, torches, windows, talking, plans? Each of their backgrounds: Burnham, designing the panic room, security and technological skills? His need for money and agreement to be in on the robbery plan? Junior, a member of the squabbling family, due to inherit, but wanting it all, deceiving the others about the extent of the wealth buried in the safe in the panic room? Raoul, bus driver, wearing a mask, employed by Junior, sullen, coming along for the robbery? His own plans? Their arrival, the time in the early morning, getting in, the basic plan, yet Junior with his lack of decisiveness and planning? Each of the three characters, their involvement, their interactions with each other? The potential for violence?

9. Meg restless, getting up, going to the toilet, seeing the burglars, hurrying her daughter into the panic room, being secure? The setting up of the predicament?

10. The use of the panic room: the security screens, the PA system, the ventilation, the burglars bashing the floor, using the gas? Meg and her ingenuity, turning the gas and the fire back on themselves? The torch and signalling to the man in the opposite apartment? His being irritated, closing his curtains? The phones, the lines, getting the mobile, getting out of the panic room just in time to get back? Linking up, Meg ringing her husband? Being cut off?

11. The tensions within the group, who was the leader, knowledge of the various skills needed, Burnham and his expertise, ignoring the other two, Junior and his becoming more jittery, less prepared, Raoul and his mask, deadly? The attempts to get into the panic room, holding up the cards to the video cameras? The threats? Burnham and the use of the gas? The final deals about the money, Raoul and his callous killing of Junior?

12. The daughter and her tension, her needing a needle, getting sick, the treatment? Meg going out, getting the medicine kit? The men getting in, Burnham giving the daughter the needle and helping her survive?

13. Stephen, his arrival, responding to his wife's call, his being brutally bashed and tied? The lure for Meg to come out? Her eventually coming out, his being set up, yet his bashing the burglars?

14. The arrival of the police, the interrogation, Meg going to the door, Burnham and Raoul watching it through the security cameras, her stalling the police, their offering her the opportunity to tell the truth, her rejecting it?

15. Meg out of the panic room, the use of the PA, bashing the screens and breaking them (and their wondering why they didn't do that originally)? In the dark, wounding Raoul, the confrontation with the guns, the shooting? The finale, Burnham going, coming back, shooting Raoul and saving mother and daughter? His attempt to escape, on the wall, losing all the money?

16. The postscript: mother and daughter in the park, on the bench, looking for their new home?

17. How effective an exercise in getting an audience to share in terror and panic?