Panic Room: Critic Reviews

Fincher mounts some clever, tense sequences in which the trio devises increasingly threatening strategies to force Meg and Sarah out of the panic room, only to be matched with improvised ingenuity from behind the vault door.

A thinking-man's women-in-jeopardy picture, Panic Room does about as much as humanly possible with its deliberately restricted one-setting premise.

Extreme suspense, graphic violence; not for kids.

Valuing logic over brutality, David Fincher's claustrophobic ride also touted the real-world practicality of keeping quiet over the cinematic kicks of a loud thriller. It's like "Wait Until Dark" with helplessness that's emotional, not just physical.

Apart from one plot twist too many, "Panic Room" is a seamless suspense-thriller with a top-notch cast.

There are so little things you can do with this story and a lot of it is pretty contrived.

David Fincher directs a nail-biter starring Jodie Foster about a mother and daughter who defend their house against a brutal home invasion.

[Allows] Fincher to shine as the skilled, stylish director that he is.

After his mind-bending, exhilarating Fight Club, director David Fincher takes on a more conventional Hollywood thriller.

Ultimately, this is just a big, dumb, commercial suspenser - but it's one of the best for ages, reminding us that it is still possible to make a high quality piece of popcorn entertainment.

Fincher is such a technically brilliant director that he can elevate a genre film--a suspenser about a damsel-in-distress--above its melodramatic trappings. The confined space (whole movie is set within a house) is no big challenge for him.

Never averse to glistening darkness, meaty metaphor or grandiloquent technical display, Fincher is also surprisingly at home with hokum.

Panic Room is a very scary film, well made and lovingly dark, and it illustrates how terrified we are of becoming the victims we see on TV.

The panic room itself is a provocative concept and it says something about modern society, but I'm not sure if it deserved its own movie.

The rich in Panic Room are under siege, and the overgrown fortress of their self-indulgence seems helpless to defend itself.

Director David Fincher stuffs the film with showy camerawork, including a trip into a keyhole, down drainpipes and through air vents.

Solid

... Further proof that Fincher is one of the cinema's true modern masters.

Jodie Foster locks herself into a room for nearly an entire film... unfortunately, she probably should have done that prior to principal photography.

...one of the most taut and exciting thrillers to emerge out of Hollywood in a good long while.

Panic Room is a thriller that deserves to be mentioned in the same category as a Rear Window.

A film which finds Fincher doing a straightforward studio thriller but peppering it with enough of his own magic to keep his fans interested.

Atmosphere, deliberate pacing, intriguing characters, and edge-of-your-seat suspense . . . its only weaknesses coming in the form of excess on the finishing touches.

Let's hope Fincher has enjoyed his vacation in Popcornopolis; now may the real David Fincher, the black-tar heart David Fincher, please resume his post in the vanguard.

Seeing Jodie Foster lay on her pillow, helpless, as shadows walk through hallways behind her, frightened me to the core.