FauxNixon

Okay, Panic Room is a point of argument among my friends as to how well-done it is.  One opinion runs that it is a shallow thriller with a predictable plotline and filled with many of the special effect techniques that were both necessary and complementary to Fight Club.  The other opinion states that the entire movie is meant to be a Freudian look at Meg Altman (as played by Jodie Foster) mentally during a dream sequence and that her daughter Sarah’s (Kristen Stewart) presence, along with those of the three burglars represents various elements of her psyche.  The people voicing this opinion tend to believe that the trio of robbers comprised of Junior (Jared Leto), a relative of the previous and now deceased owner of Meg Altman’s home, Burnham (Forest Whittaker), a good guy who has been caught up in a bad situation and normally protects people by designing these panic rooms, exactly like the kind of present in the Altman home; finally there is Raoul (Dwight Yoakam), a local bus driver brought into the scheme by Junior without notifying Burnham who proves to be the most unpleasant and frightening of the three.My opinion tends toward the former opinion of the movie as being a vapid premise.  It’s certainly not that I don’t appreciate densely layered, confusing, or even Dada kinds of films; I am a big fan of David Lynch at his weirdest.  More to the point I think that the premise that’s foisted onto Panic Room as a very deep look at a dream or other internally imagined event with these characters representing various parts of a person’s psyche seems just too forced.  It is extremely difficult to effectively produce a metaphorical film of any quality that is not readily apparent to be multifaceted.  Panic Room is just a lukewarm thriller that’s a decent movie to watch, but just not a title I think David Fincher should be terribly proud of having produced.