Panic
is one of those really fun indie sleepers, with a great cast and a dark, but titillating
premise. The movie begins with William Macy doing a voice-over as the opening
credits come up: "D’you ever get the feeling you're dead?" It turns
out he’s talking to his shrink (played nicely by the seemingly born-again
John Ritter.) Macy is going through an unusual midlife crisis - he kills people
for a living, a middle class hitman who inherited the family business from his
father (Donald Sutherland). But more and more he feels like he wants out. He’s
become introspective in his forties and he really wants to try his hand at something
else.
His
marriage is a cold and perfunctory affair. His wife is played by a non-comedic
Tracey Ullman, and he has precocious 6-year-old son played by David Dorfman, with
whom he has deep, nocturnal conversations about death, the nature of existence
and the music of Beck.
Macy
is a good family man, despite the growing gulf between he and his wife, but soon
develops a school-boy crush on a fellow shink-patient played by Neve Campbell.
Neve is a tad confused herself, struggling with her sexual identity, having recently
experimented with lesbian love and it isn’t long before they fall into an
affair.
As if
he didn’t have enough balls in the air, his father (who has vetoed his attempt
to retire) gives him a most distressing assassination assignment. As it turns
out he has to kill his therapist. At this point the film’s title begins to
take on a new meaning. As usual, Macy is perfect for this sad-sack, put-upon role.
Even his young mistress points out how much sadness his eyes convey. Not bitterness,
or hopelessness, just a distant sadness. Perhaps they’ve looked at the world
through the cross-hairs for too long. You get the gist.
Writer/director
Henry Bromell has written a nice little character study that has a lot of endearing
quirkiness, though it over-reaches at times trying to be a little too much like
Tarantino. The film isn’t without flaws, but the performances are solid across
the board and the film offers up some fun surprises that elevate it from being
a bit too meandering and unfocused.
