Panic Room

Jodie Foster is in top form as a newly single mom who feels a little vulnerable and very uncomfortable about moving into a cavernous Manhattan brownstone with her daughter (Kristen Stewart). A bit claustrophobic, she's even more uneasy about the house's "panic room," a high-tech, high-security hidden chamber behind her bedroom wall. But it sure comes in handy when three brutal prowlers break in--or does it? The room's phone has yet to be activated, emergency supplies don't include her diabetic daughter's insulin, and the thieves seem to know more about the hiding place than they do. Director David Fincher (taking a step toward the conventional after Fight Club) builds solid (but hardly seat-gripping) tension in this thriller, using his distinctive cinematic style of crisp yet dark visuals and CGI-enhanced tracking shots to make the viewer feel like a helpless observer--almost as if you are the house itself, violated by the break-in, protective of your occupants but unable to act. Recommended. [Note: Since this is a Superbit version with maximum space allotted to improved picture and sound, DVD extras are bare--essentially cast and crew filmographies and a teaser trailer. Bottom line: Since this is a David Fincher film--whose Fight Club was one of the best DVD packages released--a special edition may be coming in the future; for now, this Superbit release will introduce many viewers to the format's pristine video and audio.] (R. Blackwelder)[DVD Review--Mar. 23, 2004--Columbia TriStar, 3 discs, 112 min., R, $39.95, avail. Mar 30--Initially released in a bare-bones Superbit edition, David Fincher's Panic Room: Special Edition raises the bar for “special edition” releases. Unlike Fincher's Fight Club, which was hailed as the ne plus ultra of DVD releases but, in fact, was loaded with someone-left-the-camera-running pointless vignettes, Panic Room--while even more chockfull of extras--is a tightly focused, beautifully laid-out, occasionally jaw-dropping package that (truth be told) is often more interesting than the B-movie on steroids that is its subject. A three-disc set, with absolutely cool animated menus that take the viewer inside a building to reveal more submenus (mimicking what's called “the big shot” in the film showing the layout of Foster's multi-level brwonstone), the first disc features the film, which is nigh identical to the original Superbit release, along with three very good commentaries (one by Fincher; another by cast members Foster, Forest Whitaker, and Dwight Yoakam; and the third by writer David Koepp and guest screenwriting legend William Goldman). Disc two contains “Pre-Production” and “Production” segments, with fascinating featurettes on “previs”--the CGI pre-visualization storyboard process--as well as multi-angle storyboard/final film composites, and the 54-minute “Shooting Panic Room,” an in-depth “making of.” Disc three on “Post-Production” features no less than 21 featurettes on visual effects (more than a few for scenes that I didn't even notice as a special effect in the film--bringing a camera through a narrowly-open door, for instance--which required a transition to CGI), as well as a 16-minute featurette on sound design, 11-minute featurette on “Digital Intermediate” (color correction), a series of multi-angle segments on the orchestra playing Howard Shore's score, a text essay on Super-35mm film, and a handful of sequence breakdowns (comparing script, storyboard, video tests, dailies, and final cut). Bottom line: tech-heavy, but always user-friendly, this “special edition” will appeal to both general fans and those looking for “film school in a box”-like sets.]