Panic Room Movie Review 426

Panic Room is a 2002 thriller directed by David Fincher and starring Jodie Foster,Kristen Stewart, Jared Leto, Dwight Yoakam and Forest Whitaker.

Foster stars as Meg Altman, a divorced woman with an 11 year old called Sarah(Stewart).
They are looking for a new place to live and they look a properties. Meg finds a nice house and she buys it. It is a really nice place with a little oddity. It has a panic room. This is a secure room which has a steel door, security cameras, a separate phone line and everything a person could need to stay in there if needs be. Unfortunately for Meg and Sarah, someone else also knows about the panic room. He is called Junior(Leto) and he has stashed 3 million dollars in bonds inside it. He knows the place as he is the grandson of the last owner. He has two people with him to help him to get the bonds. They are Burnham(Whitaker) who knows all about the security in the place and Raoul(Yoakam) who is a thug and who has a gun. He is a bit of a loose cannon.

They come to the house and they are determined to break into the safe. They realise that there are people there, but they decide to keep going. But, they get spotted by Meg who grabs Sarah and runs into the panic room to hide. The phone line doesn't work so they can't call the cops. The crooks try and gas them through the vent but Meg ignites the gas and forces a fire through the vent. Juniors face gets burned. Meg manages to fix the phone line for a few minutes before it is cut off by the bad guys.
She calls her ex husband. Junior decides to give it up as he can't see any way to get into the panic room. He is going to leave but gets shot by Raoul who will not give up on the money. He forces Burnham to continue with the robbery.

The husband turns up but gets caught by the two thieves and beaten. He is taken hostage. Meg ends up outside the panic room and her daughter has a seizure. She needs her medication and Meg gets it for her and throws it into the room. She gets locked out and her daughter is inside with Burnham and Raoul.Burnham gives her the medication and she recovers. He doesn't want to hurt anyone. The cops come, but Meg has no choice but to lie to them in order to keep her daughter safe. Burnham manages to get the money and then he and Raoul are going to leave using Sarah as protection. Meg attacks Raoul and all hell breaks loose. The movie ends with Burnham shooting Raoul and trying to escape, but he gets caught by the cops. He lets the money go. Meg and Sarah look for a new place to live and the movie ends.

I saw this in the cinema when it was originally released and I liked it a lot. It is well directed and very tense. I liked the cast. Foster is great in the main role and the baddies are played very well by Leto, Whitaker and Yoakam.I am not a huge fan of Stewart and this movie does nothing to change my mind. This was a treat for me because I am a huge fan of Dwight Yoakam. Seeing him in this role was something new and he did very well here. It is an interesting story. The idea of the panic room is great. It is supposed to be a sanctuary, but ends up like a prison in the end. I think that if you enjoy a decent thriller with a great cast then this will be for you. I recommend it and I will give it a 7/10.