Panic Room plays much better at home than in the
theater. It did well at the box office, and will certainly do better on video.
David Fincher’s latest experiment in under-exposure works on the small screen,
because, like John Carpenter’s Halloween, you’re watching it in a
similar location to where the story is taking place; your home (and private
sanctuary), has been violated.
Coming off 1999’s Fight Club, David Fincher developed a reputation for
being a director with social significance. It was perplexing to many, then, when
he followed with Panic Room, a straight forward suspense thriller.
Critics looking for deeper meaning faulted the film -- however, from the
earliest press reports, Fincher made it quite clear he was simply interested in
entertaining this time out.
For pragmatic reasons I can’t slant him. It’s been well understood from the
beginning that he’s a director who chooses to work on a large canvas. Of his 4
previous films, only Se7en was a financial success. Plainly put, he
needed a hit to maintain final cut over his work. (He also signed to direct Mission:
Impossible 3.) He’s not interested in making smaller, artier films like
Paul Thomas Anderson or Spike Jonze.
The DVD is compact, like the feature. There are few extras, and they’re
ultimately insignificant. In relation to most DVDs nowadays, this is refreshing.
It’s been released in the Superbit format, which uses a higher bit rate and
produces a better quality image. I watched Panic Room on both my Titanium
PowerBook and a DVD player at home. While it looked and sounded great on my
laptop, the home unit seemed unable to deal with this format, occasionally
distorting the sound and subtitling any written information in French! Then
again, it is a pretty cheap DVD player.
Like O Brother Where Art Thou? and Amelie, the picture was
digitally mastered and color timed. There are no artifacts. It’s totally
clean. This is because the video wasn’t created from a finished print of the
film, but from the master made during the color timing for the original release.
What you’re seeing here is actually a higher quality image than the theatrical
prints, because it was never transferred from digital back to celluloid, then
back to digital, thus losing 2 generations.
I don’t see much point in focusing on the plot, since it’s the least
interesting aspect of the film. Like everything else, it’s tight and
calculated -- perhaps too calculated. Dramatically, Panic Room plays like
a taut, modern take on Polankski’s dark claustrophobia and sadistic mass
audience torture. Like The Game, it’s a treatise on class; an allegory
of how our society has become paranoid about its wealth and power, and how it
pathetically uses surveillance and technology to try and hide what is ultimately
worthless -- in this case, bonds that are in somebody else’s name. Human
relations, as signified by the shattered family cooperating for its survival,
are what’s important. What isn’t blows away in the end with an ode to The
Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
The most auspicious facet of the film is its cinematography -- a collaboration
between Conrad W. Hall (another Jr. with “W” as a middle initial), and
Darius Khondji. There was a great deal of hype at the reteaming of Fincher and
Khondji, who’d previously collaborated on Se7en, with great success.
Khondji was replaced shortly after filming began, however, due to creative
differences. Hall, making his debut as a feature D.P., does a fine job of
integrating traditional camera work with digital
technology.
In my opinion, the film’s famous tracking shot of the
break-in will be to the younger generation of filmmakers and enthusiasts what
Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil opener was to the former. Fincher has
distinguished himself as a first-rate pioneer of CGI. Instead of using it to
create creatures or space ships -- effects that call attention to themselves --
he uses it to augment shots that can’t be achieved through traditional
photography, thus taking the form to the next level of possibility.
Having been a fan of Fincher’s videos from as far back as the late ‘80s,
I’ve been somewhat disappointed by his features. Although they’re always
intelligent and beautifully photographed, like many, I’m growing tired of his
preference for dark, nighttime interiors. As his video work displayed, he’s
got great range. I’m still waiting to see that same promise on the big screen.
One final, interesting thing to note is the constant product placement of Sony,
the parent company of Columbia, who released Panic Room. Spielberg’s Minority
Report and Zmeckis’ Cast Away aside, Fincher has become cinema’s
predominant promoter of product. From his producer role in last year’s online
BMW commercials to Fight Club’s apparent corporate slander (contrary to
popular perception, there is no bad press), he’s deftly merged commerce and
entertainment.
For a good night of suspenseful entertainment, turn the lights off and digest Panic
Room. Just don’t expect much aftertaste.
-Copyright 2002 by Jamie
Stuart