Review of Panic

Introduction

William H Macy, Hollywood`s current favourite underdog, stars in this movie-without-a-genre. I certainly can`t figure out what it`s supposed to be. Yes I can. It`s grim. It says on the box it`s caustically funny, yet curiously heartbreaking, and it`s neither. It`s just grim, and call me stupid (it`s my middle name) but the ending makes no sense whatsoever. Even after listening to the director`s commentary (it`s a flashback).

Macy plays Alex, a meek-looking everyman who meets a girl (Neve Campbell) in the waiting room of his shrink`s office. When the consultation with the psychiatrist (the late, lamented John Ritter) begins, he makes the revelation that he is a hitman - he kills people for a living.

He works for his father Michael (Donald Sutherland), who trained him to be a killer by having him shoot squirrels (off-screen, but that makes him an enemy in my eyes). Alex is married to Martha (the ever-overrated Tracey Ullman), but he is fascinated by the bisexual Sarah (Campbell) who he keeps encountering at the shrink`s office.

He wants to stop being a hitman, but Michael will have none of it, and is intent on grooming Alex`s son Sammy as the next generation of killer. He also wants the shrink dead.

It`s nice seeing Barbara Bain (of Space:1999 and Mission Impossible) working again, playing Macy`s mother Deidre, and young David Dorfman as Alex`s son Sammy has a great future in movies (he looks like a very very young (six-year-old) Robert Carlyle). Fans of the US sitcom The Nanny will probably freak at the sight of that show`s "Maggie" (Nicholle Tom) as Sarah`s lesbian lover.

Video

The picture is excellent, although both the movie specs on the IMDb and the DVD specs for the US Artisan release list this movie as being 2.35:1, and this transfer is 16:9.

Audio

The soundtrack is very plain vanilla Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo.

Features

There`s a trailer, five deleted scenes, a director`s commentary, textual production notes on the film`s background, textual star biographies and production credits. There`s also a web link.

The menu and functionality of the disc is preceded by a control lockout FACT announcement, a UK Film Council recruitment drive for ethnic minorities fronted by ubervacuous June Sarpong and the ubiquitous "Piracy Is A Crime" promo which, if I see it again I will strangle someone.

Conclusion

This is the only movie written and directed by tv writer-producer Henry Bromell, and frankly I`m not surprised. While technically well-made and boasting an excellent cast and crew, it`s a slow-moving and depressing piece with little to recommend it. The premise could have delivered something staggeringly black humour like Prizzi`s Honour, but the finished product with its totally unsatisfactory ending is a total and utter disappointment.