Panic Room

After directing 2001’s cult classic Fight Club, David Fincher decided to direct something smaller and simpler. Thus Panic Room is set almost entirely in a New York brownstone mansion, occupied by a wealthy divorcee and her daughter.

There is something highly theatrical about this piece and it could easily be adapted for theatre, the entire spectacle takes place over a night in which, after Meg Altman and her daughter, Sarah move into their new home, criminals break in looking for something hidden in the upstairs safe, they are surprised to find that the new occupants of the house have already moved in, and after the occupants lock themselves in the panic room where the safe is hidden.

Fincher and screenwriter David Koep were inspired to make this film after watching a news story about how wealthy suburban WASPs were building panic rooms to protect against interlopers. The second and third acts involve the intruders trying to coaxe the family out of the panic room in order to access the safe.

Although it was originally conceived as a standard popcon thriller, in typical Fincher style it is, in reality, far more complex than that, the film plays upon themes of mortality, suburban paranoia and the insecurity of wealth.

Throughout the film the panic room is frequently compared to a coffin, and Sarah relates being trapped in the panic room to being buried alive, this is an interesting comparison, and especially true given how the phone is disconnected and they have no way of contacting the outside world, the way Sarah compares their situation to being buried alive shows that she is losing hope, and that she feels a sense of finality in their situation.

The film also touches on themes of suburban paranoia, the very presence of a panic room shows a paranoid fear of interlopers and tresspassers, and the numerous high security features in the room, feel unnecessary, and show the paranoia of the previous owner.

FInally another theme frequently explored in this film, and throughout many other of Fincher’s works is how insecure wealth can be, although Meg, being a divorced woman is obviously fabulously wealthy, and can afford to buy such extravagant security features as a panic room and CCTV, it is apparent that her wealth, in addition to being useless in the situation in which she finds herself, actually makes her a target, and that the unnecessarily large house she buys makes her highly vulnerable.

The film stars Jodie Forster as Meg, and Kristen Stewart as her daughter, Forster manages to bring gravitas to a film which could appear frivolous in the hands of a less capable lead actress. And Kristen Stewart proves that she is capable not only of some pretty decent acting, but also of closing her mouth occasionally. This film proves that before she was artistically raped by the sheer awfulness of the Twilight Saga, that she was actually a pretty decent actor, and as child stars go, she’s really bloody good in this film.

As the three interloper who try and break in to the panic room, Forest Wittaker plays Burnham, the most compassionate of the group, and Jared Leto plays Junior, grandson of the previous owner of the house and a hardened criminal. Finally Dwight Yoakam plays the third archetype of criminal, a hardened and rutheless and mechanical assassin who rarely shows his face and who kills with little compassion. These three men represent three stereotypes of criminal, and it is interesting that they all share the same fate, in spite of their different outlooks.

Whilst it may appear to be just another popcorn flick, Panic Room is a theatrical and thought out thriller, which makes a great statement on the notion of security and mortality in an era directly after 9/11, and which features fine performances from it’s leads.

The Chamber Of Secrets

Intuition, (and honest trailers) tells me that i'm supposed to detest this movie, that this is the worst film in the series and that this is 'the one everyone hates', but i can't help it, Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets is one of my favorites, i adore the source novel and the film is equally as good, released in 2002 and, like the first film, directed by Chris Columbus, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is based upon JK Rowling's book of the same name, and the second film in the series.

The film follows Harry and his friends in their second year at Hogwarts School, as Harry meets for the second time, his arch enemy Lord Voldemort, and attempts to unravel the mystery of The Chamber of Secrets, a mysterious cavern built deep underneath the school, under the black lake, by one of the schools founders, Salazar Slytherin who expected that the chamber would be reopened when his heir returned to the school and unleashed the monster within, purging the school of muggle borns and creating a solely pure blood school. What immediately stands out about this film is the production design, the design of the chamber is spectacular, a long echoing room lined with giant snake heads hissing, and filled at the end with a huge medusa-like statue of Salazar Slytherin himself, out of whose mouth the basilisk crawls.

The film is also the first in which we meet Lord Voldemort as anything other than a crazed embedded face on the back of someone's head, Voldemort is shown as a real character, a real figure, a memory or a piece of Voldemort's soul hidden in the pages of a diary, a memory of a teenage boy, before the modifications and the years of soul splitting and murder left his body mutilated and ugly. We finally learn more about who Voldemort really is, what drives him, and what his connection with Harry is, Harry's psychological connection to Tom Riddle is also uncovered with his ability to speak Parseltongue revealed.

The acting in this film is generally much stronger than in the first, and the young actors seem to finally be finding their feet, their performances feel more confident, more lifelike and in this film as child actors go, their performances are pretty darn good. The supporting cast of acclaimed british thespians is as fantastic as expected, and this film features the addition of Miriam Margolyes as Professor sprout, the herbology professor, in a fantastic bit part. But what is most fantastic about this film, is it's story, mysterious and winding this films plot is original and dark, and for that we must give full credit to JK Rowling, author of this opus.

I love this film, not so much for the film itself although the cinematography and set design are pretty incredible, the plot is what is so amazing, and the story is a fantastic invention. The film offers us juicy tidbits about Harry and Voldemort's shared past, present and future, and allows us to truly be sucked into this magnificent creation. Rating: B

Dumbledore: It is not our abilities that show what we truly are. It is our choices.