Panic Room (2002)

Okay, so I have a David Fincher fetish. I readily admit that. I have seen all of his major motion pictures (Alien 3 being the only one I'm a little hazy on...), and I have been sucked in by Se7en and Zodiac especially. Panic Room, however, was one I didn't see until 5 years after its release. I was very hesitant, as I thought it would be a boringly executed film with another lackluster performance by Jodie Foster.

Boy, was I wrong; pleasantly so.

I recently saw The Brave One, starring Ms. Foster, and was so taken by her performance that I decided to give this film a whirl. But before I get into that, let me give you the rundown.

Panic Room stars Jodie Foster as single-mom Meg Altman raising her daugther, Sarah, played by Kristen Stewart (who took over the role after Hayden Panettiere backed out, FYI) in upscale New York City. They're house hunting and decide to buy this HUGE place, after a nudge from friend and realtor Lydia Lynch, cameoed by Ann Magnuson. Upon inspecting the house, they come across a "panic room," which is basically a shelter from burglars and the like, equipped with steel doors, an air vent, security monitors, supplies, a phone on a separate line, and (outside of Meg's knowledge) a safe containing a few million dollars in bonds left by the late owner.

So, the first night in the place, Burnham (played by Forest Whitaker), Raoul (played surprisingly well by Dwight Yoakam) and Junior (played by Fincher stalwart Jared Leto) break in, trying to retrieve the bonds. Junior used to take care of the old owner in his dotage, Burnham works for the company who installs the panic rooms, and Raoul is a thug along for the ride and haul. Meg hears them break in, gets Sarah and they hide in the panic room, not realizing that is exactly the place that the robbers are trying to get into. Insanity ensues as victims and thieves try any trick they can think of to get what they want.

So, I had a falling out with Jodie Foster around the time she did Anna & The King. The movie didn't move me, and not much of what she did leading up to that, or after, struck my fancy. Seeing The Brave One rekindled my appreciation for just how powerful a presence she is on screen. Panic Room was, happily, no different. Her performance really brings out Meg's desperation as she tries to evade the robbers and keep Sarah and herself alive. Every moment from her is so appreciatingly grounded.

David Fincher does a wonderful job of keeping the desperation and fright so high that I found myself gripping a pillow and leaning over the arm of my couch around halfway through the movie and stayed that way through the end. This film does (after seeing all of his films to date) seem like a rest stop after Fight Club and his maddening immersion into Zodiac, but it is still highly gripping and very engaging.

The supporting cast is a great combination, as well. Jared Leto, noteworthy for his complete believability as this scummy, white-trashy douchebag, Junior, and Dwight Yoakam, because I had NO idea it was him throughout the entire movie and would have scoffed at a singer-trying-to-be-actor, except for the fact that when I saw his name in the credits I did a triple take.

Kudos to David Fincher for totally surprising me with this little nugget of joy. Except, one thing: PLEASE cut out the "fly-through" camera shots. Wasted CGI and totally distracting.

Just One Of The Guys (1985)

Terry Griffith, played haphazardly by Joyce Hyser, is a woman fed up with The Man's World. So, she does what every high schooler would do to break the glass ceiling: she switches school mid-term and switches genders to pose as a man. All this to prove that if she were a man, she would have gotten that sweet, sweet internship as a journalist for the local Sun-Tribune. Lucky for her her parents are on a two-week vacation, her brother, played for laughs (and minimal ones at that) by Billy Jacoby, is too hormonally driven to care, and her college-age boyfriend, played far too old for his age by Leigh McCloskey, is easily subdued with a bat of an eyelash. Unlucky for her she falls for the first boy she meets, Rick, played by receding hairline "high school boy" Clayton Rohner, becomes the object of the local rock-chick's affections, played by Sherilyn Fenn, and pisses off the local popular jock, played by William Zabka. I mention these names to prove a point: barely any of these actor/esses made it out of the 80's, and none of them had noticeable careers.

It's a very simple plot with a very poor delivery. The most painful element being the pacing. It was so ungodly slow! Any jokes, and there were some halfway decent ones in there, fell flat on their faces because of the pacing. Reactions were so delayed and all humor ground to an agonizing halt. Next, the film asks the viewer to make one too many suspensions of disbelief. Parents conveniently gone on a vacation? No one minding, or noticing, that Terry switches schools in the middle of a semester for a couple of weeks? Come on. And lastly, I can take the canned high school atmosphere that the movie delivers, what with the jocks, the über-nerds, the outcasts, and the REALLY horrible outfits of the 80's, but I cannot, CANNOT, take the message that the ending delivers.

The movie's arc goes something like this for me: Terry is pissed because she feels her writing for a journalism contest isn't take seriously because she is a woman. She changes identities, and genders, and submits the same article as a man at a new school. She is told the same thing: that her writing is boring, but well written. She tries to juggle this new identity around her boyfriend, brother, new friends at a new school, and the mundane life of high school (filled with prom, gym classes, and Saturday night dates), making for some ridiculous and painful situations. She quickly realizes that she has a crush on her friend, Rick, but, alas, Rick knows her as Terry the boy, not Terry the girl (and don't worry, Joyce Hyser brought her frying pan to hit you with to signal her gender swaps). As this crush grows, Terry the boy helps Rick to find a date to the prom, and helps to land him the most popular girl in school. Jealousy ensues, and Terry the girl is forced to face her feelings and admits this to Rick at the prom while she's dressed as (oh no!) Terry the boy. To cope with this debacle, Terry the girl returns to her journalism and writes an article based on her time as a boy. Which (and if you didn't guess this already, shame on you) lands her the internship at the Sun-Tribune. Later, she and Rick reconcile and the movie ends with a trite little scene where Rick drives Terry (at Rick's behest, because he's the man) off into the sunset.

So, this movie was really just telling the viewer to be honest with themselves and let men be men and women women? That I cannot stomach. What is the point of sitting through a feature film only to return to the start? The grass really isn't greener on the other side, so don't even bother? I felt cheated after I watched that movie. I felt like I had just sat through a movie only to return back to the beginning. Unfortunately.

Fortunately, though, it can still tickle a gender-bending fancy. It teaches us nothing enlightening about the sexes, merely trite clichès, but hey, this could be considered gender in film studies progress for the time.

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