The movie starts out with Meg Altman, played by Jodie Foster, looking for an apartment in Manhattan with her daughter, Sarah, played by 12 year old Kristen Stewart. The shot of them walking down the road with the real estate agent is one of the few shots that takes place outside of the brownstone. Meg, recently divorced from a pharmaceutical executive, is persuaded by the agents to move into the house, as her divorce settlement would allow her to afford it. In this opening scene, Fincher takes us through the entire house, giving us the big picture to the setting. There is one room in the house that is the centre to the movie: the panic room. As we are told, the previous owner of the house was paranoid and had a panic room built- made to withstand people coming in from the outside, with a private line to the police, steel walls, and rations to last for food until the police get there. In essence, the panic room is a place of shelter and comfort from the outside and thematically relevant to the concept of the movie.

On their first night in the apartment, three burglars come to the house believing that the Altmans aren't supposed to have moved in yet. Their mission: to get something inside the panic room (to say what would be a spoiler). Knowing the burglars are in the house, Meg grabs Sarah and locks the two of them in the panic room just before they are nabbed by the burglars. The rest of the movie is a continuation of the invaders trying to seduce Meg and Sarah out of the panic room. Among things, we find that the independent phone line is not connected and Sarah is diabetic and requires an insulin shot. Fincher uses the same CGI shots that he used in Fight Club to bring us through walls, keyholes, and even flashlightbulbs. These swooping and twisting long shots help keep the viewer focused.

Character development is one of the key strengths to this movie's script. The burglars are a mixed bag, each with his own personality strength and idea of how to break into the panic room. Junior (Jared Leto), is the tense one, Raoul (Dwight Yoakum) is the quiet, yet irrational one, and Burnham (Forrest Whittaker) is the calm and rational one. Burnham works for a security company and his knowledge of how the panic room was made keys us into how the burglars want to get into the room. The rest of the movie is the cat and mouse game between the burglars and Meg and Sarah. Saying more would be giving too much away.

David Koepp's script was written well in the way of character development, and I can't say enough about Fincher's directing, but there seemed to be something missing in the way of plot. Granted, the entire movie was filmed inside of one house, but something was missing in the way of actual plot development. The score on this was phenomenal, reminding me of the violins in Psycho and setting an even darker mood than what the dim-light cinematography holds. All of the cast play their roles convincingly, especially Foster, who has to drive the audience into actually fearing the burglars, as simple minded as they individually might be. She doesn't fail to do this and that is why Panic Room succeeds. It takes us inside the fearful realm of the outside and our human need for security from the unknown.

01.04.02