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No 'Room' to 'Panic'
"Who would have thought that the Oscars would finish before midnight (EST)? The Yahoo Pick' Em game was interesting. Matt Bailey was the big winner of it, congrats to him. It's really weird to see my favorite director and my favorite screenwriter win Oscars. I never expected Steven Soderbergh and Cameron Crowe to win last night. For once the academy rewarded the best men in those categories. Steve Martin was a delight, I hope he will host the show again. Best speech was by Steven Soderbergh. Thanking everyone who creates all sorts of art was the most brilliant thing said last night. The best dress was the one worn by Jennifer Lopez. UNBELIEVABLE! I'll try to give you guys a preview of this week. We'll have script reviews of Slackers, Road to Perdition and We Were Soldiers Once... and Young. Along with film reviews of The Tailor of Panama and 40 Days and 40 Nights. Today, we start with Lester S. Livermore's review of The Panic Room script.
'The Panic Room' script review
What would happen if you decided to remake Home Alone as a serious adult thriller? You'd probably come up with something like David Koepp's ultra-gimmicky The Panic Room. I'm afraid I've left a raw spot on my skull scratching my head trying to figure out why a gifted director like David Fincher or a highly talented actress like Jodie Foster would take an interest in this material. The only conclusion I can come to is: money. Occasionally people make movies strictly for the money so they can go and do the movies they really want to make.
Rumor has it that Koepp got the unholy sum of four million dollars for this February 2000 script which puzzles me even further. But enough of my ruminations, it's time to take a closer look at this script so you might understand my befuddlement.
Meg (Jodie Foster) is moving out on her own. She and her husband are in the final stages of a divorce and Meg must find a new home for her and her nine year old daughter Sarah. Meg has plenty of money but little sense and quickly purchases the first suitable abode. This particular structure was previously the home of Bernard Pearlstine, something of a real estate baron. His family is tearing itself apart over his fortune, at least half of which cannot be found. The crown jewel of his four story (plus finished basement) townhouse is the panic room. This is essentially a third floor bomb shelter for hiding from intruders. The room is encased in steel, has video monitors to cover the whole house, has it's own air supply and separate phone line and is well stocked with supplies.
On their first night in the house, someone breaks in. Didn't see that coming, now did you? Actually, three someones break in. One of them, Junior (Jared Leto) is the grandson of the former owner. He knows that the old man hid half his fortune in the panic room. Along for the ride is Burnham (Forrest Whitaker), the man who designed the panic room and Raoul (Dwight Yoakam), the hired muscle. Unfortunately for them, they were unaware that Meg and Sarah had moved in already. They thought they had another week. As you might expect, the two women lock themselves into the panic room for safety and the thieves spend the rest of the movie trying to get them out.
This is exactly where the script lost me. The smart thing for these thieves to do at this point would be to leave. They could then stake out the house and wait for Meg to leave. Instead they continue with the plan, shrugging at the added dificulty of kidnapping on top of breaking and entering. Their attempts to force Meg and Sarah from the room feel like Home Alone except serious instead of cartoonish. Mostly. I repeatedly thought that this would play much better as a comedy.
The script is a case of the plot driving the characters rather than the other way around. The characters aren't allowed to think and come up with good ideas because the script requires them to dumb things. I suspect the script needs a solid rewrite to try and close some of the plot holes and fortify the weak logic. Everything in the thriller part of the movie was transparent. I could either see something coming long before it happened or wondering why it took characters so long to come up with certain ideas.
The most interesting characters are Meg and Burnham. Meg is an extremely weak character early on and has to to work past her neurosis and develop a backbone. How she does that is a bit contrived but there is a foundation for a real character. Burnham is a guy who has a serious gambling problem. It has cost him family and home and this robbery is his chance to restore his life. I would have liked a lot more focus on these two. They had the motivations to drive the plot but were rarely given the chance. Raoul is a garden variety psycho which makes him completely uninteresting. It's pretty much his excuse for dumb behavior. Junior is pretty much a non-personality. Worse yet he admits to an alternate plan late in the movie that was much safer than the one they actually attempted. I found myself rolling my eyes painfully at this point. Finally Sarah isn't so much a character as she is a plot device. Her personality and physical traits are thinly veiled plot points.
Fincher's interest in the movie was probably based on the unusual camera angles described by the script. That and the dark claustrophobic setting probably appealed to his style of filmmaking. None the less it doesn't come near the quality of Fight Club so this is bound to be a disappointment. It's not an awful script but without some work the story is one that will be forgotten all too quickly after the movie is released. It's the perfect summer action movie. It has a high concept, plenty of action and works quickly so no one should ever get bored. It's obviously meant to be quick. The first two lines are "This film is short. This film is fast." That it certainly is. The script is an easy read and I buzzed through it in no time at all."
Review submitted by 'Lester S. Livermore.'
Stay tuned...
That's all folks...
Jean-François Allaire (aka DeadPool)
Questions, comments, praise etc. Email me at deadpool@tnmc.org
Jean-François Allaire is TNMC's first columnist. At only 24 years old he has become a respected entertainment journalist, with his columns appearing in Corona's Coming Attractions and Scr(i)pt magazine. He also writes a monthly column in Screenwriters Monthly entitled 'The Last Word.' Hailing from Montreal this young writer is determined to dig up all the details on the movies before they hit your local theater. If you're part of a movie production then you really need to be talking to him.
