Panic Room

A woman and her teenage daughter (Jodie Foster, Kristen Stewart) take refuge in a self-contained, impregnable shelter when three burglars invade their home—but what the intruders want is in the shelter with them. Hitchcock would have made something delicious of the premise, tormenting us and making us love it. Director David Fincher (from David Koepp’s script) torments us, all right, and expertly—but he doesn’t seem to care whether we enjoy it or not (perhaps he’s happier if we don’t). The film is chilly, colored in shades of blue and slate gray; the characters—even the two women, who are after all the victims here—look as if their skin would be clammy to the touch, like clay. It’s sinister (with Fincher’s usual dim lighting) and pitilessly effective, but not a lot of fun to watch.