So going into this movie, I thought it was going to be some horror movie or have something to do with some sort of psychopath killer (kinda like Zodiac), but I was pretty far off. It was a thriller, and a very good one at that. Fincher used a lot of cinematic techniques to add to the suspense of the thriller. He had a sort of recurring theme, a shot that he used several times throughout the movie that served to completely throw off the viewer. It was a shot that started off showing the character placed in the normal direction, then the camera does a 90 degree tilt, and the character is then shown in a completely different perspective that totally throws off the viewer, or at least I was totally messed up. After this move, something always happened. It was a giveaway, but nothing was really given away, just that something, anything was about to happen. The shot only shows the one character, so any of the other characters could do anything, which is exactly what happened. This is pretty much Fincher's way of doing the old Hitchcock showing the bomb under the table thing, except we don't know what the bomb is, just that there is a bomb-like thing somewhere that's about to go off. There was another really cool shot that was in a way the establishing shot. It was a really intense crane shot that evolved into a traveling shot that showed people outside the house trying to break in. It wasn't the first shot of the film, but it really showed the immensity of the house and what was really going to be occuring in the movie.
Fincher uses other aspects of film to add even more thrills and suspense. The characters that are found in the film each have some sort of quirk that you know will be very important at some point in the movie. Sarah has what seems to be diabetes, and being trapped in a room with no food of any kind will eventually lead to something bad happening - Meg, the mom played by Jodie Foster, has to eventually go and get Sarah's shots while there is a slight opening while the bad guys are having a fight about the money distribution. Burnham, one of the bad guys, refuses to kill anyone in the house. This ends up nearly killing him, and it is also what saves Meg in the end. He had intentions that were far better than any of the other bad guys in the movie; all he wanted to do was get the money to help his family and get out, no killing necessary. So the way the characters were set up was a key element that added to the suspense of the movie because you never knew when each character's quirk was going to cause a big change in the progression of the movie.
I think the best part of the movie was how well Fincher made the audience feel the emotions of each of the characters. You could truly see how desperate Meg was to save her daughter, and Burnham's humanity really came through his actions. It was something that I really enjoyed in the movie, feeling how the characters felt. Obviously it wasn't nearly as intense for me as the viewer, but even feeling just some of the intense emotions that the characters in the movie felt was enough to make me really really enjoy this movie. That is, if enjoying a thriller means being uptight and antsy and even a bit afraid the whole time.
6 comments:
Ya I agree with you about the emotions being expressed in the characters. The confined space in the panic room really brought out a lot in the characters. It was all in the facial expressions; it really told a lot about what the characters were thinking. I liked that it also went back and forth between the robbers and Meg and Sarah. You could tell what both sides were thinking and doing so we weren’t left in the dark with one of the two parties. The security camera shots really added a lot to the suspense, especially when she’s making a run for the cell phone. I thought it was a well made film.
The security cameras! I thought they were a great idea. Fincher used them really well to add suspense. He would just show enough so that you knew the bad guys were up to something, but not enough that you knew what they were actually doing. Then he we show the reactions of the characters, but their reactions were the same as the viewers. It was a really well done cinematic trick. That was probably THE thing that made this movie so incredibly suspenseful.
Ya, I also thought the bad guy characters were kinda clever. They each had different personalities. The head guy was kinda stupid and didn’t know what was going on and than Burnham was smart and skilled but had a good cause and than the other shady guy just wanted blood. I was more on edge for the bad guys than the actual victims because their group was so…. unstable, and for good reason, they kinda turned on each other near the end.
They definitely turned on each other at the end. And you're right, that group was really really unstable. And the head guy...what an idiot... I'm actually kinda glad he got shot just because of how dumb he was. Personally, I really liked Burnham. He was really just a good guy deep down that was in a really difficult time. It's at least understandable as to why he took part in the break in.
I was most impressed with the small cast. It got intense and personal all around that the small cast was key. It kept it open and relied on the back stories. I mean how many suspense movies has only 5 main characters and end up so complex. I think the director made a good call by leaving it so small because you really got to know them and it gave it that extra step.
The mixed personalities of the bad guys was a huge part. They had a role and stuck with it. I don't even think the black guy needed anyone else because he did everything. I mean he figured out how to communicate, came up with all the ideas to get them out, and was the only one who could break the safe. The other two were really stupid and only stayed around because they had a gun and the Black guy wasn't evil. They all were also playing extreme emotions. the black guy was wise and kind, masked dude had some major anger issues, and the other guy was just a dumb-ass. I mean he had no idea how to be a bad guy.
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