Synopsis Panic
Once a year or so, Donald Sutherland shakes the boredom out of his voice, runs a steady hand over the lapels of one of his immaculately hand-tailored jackets and gives a performance. That alone is reason enough to see ''Panic,'' a sneaky and smart film noir that has much more going for it than Mr. Sutherland's turn.
The writer and director, Henry Bromell, was a writer on the ''take a bite out of crime'' series ''Homicide'' in the days when most of its cast members looked like real detectives instead of recruits from Must See TV.
He has used similarly effective casting in ''Panic,'' the story of a psychological power struggle between the go-along, get-along Alex (William H. Macy) and his father, Michael (Mr. Sutherland), who molded his son to be a man from the time he could walk. Rational and calm on the outside, Alex is wrestling with the need to leave the family business for which his father trained him: murder for hire.
As a feature, ''Panic,'' which opens today at the Angelika Film Center, is very close to Alex in temperament: calm and even-tempered but white-knuckled from laboring to maintain that veneer of sanity. Alex's life is entirely compartmentalized, and the strain of keeping the blood of his day job from spilling into his family life is taking its toll.
The movie develops its tension as Alex loses interest in shuffling the various parts of his life so neatly. The film shifts from his happy, bourgeois life with his wife, Martha (Tracey Ullman), and son, Sammy (David Dorfman), to his uncomfortable sessions with his therapist, Josh (John Ritter). Mr. Bromell pulls together Freud, the master crime novelist Jim Thompson and elements of Greek tragedy for ''Panic,'' slowly adding each layer with the focus of a skilled tradesman.
Mr. Macy gives Alex a sense of thorough professionalism that colors all aspects of his life. Talking to his therapist, Alex examines his own life as if it were a job he's preparing for, meticulously eyeing each detail and becoming more mournful as he does so. He is probably such a successful killer because there's not a trace of derring-do in him; he could just as easily be an estate planner, especially since he's readying most of his clients for their estates anyway. This composure makes him attractive to another of Josh's patients, the scattered Sarah (Neve Campbell). They may be too schematic as opposites, but Alex's heart leaps to his eyes when he sees Sarah.
Mr. Bromell's shrewdness in constructing narrative is a bit more advanced than his directing skills, but he has worked out ''Panic'' intelligently and supported his script with an able cast. He gets a powerful and creepy performance from Mr. Sutherland, as well as from Barbara Bain as Michael's wife and Alex's mother; she and Michael are cunning helpmates who complete each other in the worst way.
The director also uses Ms. Campbell's coltish exuberance, freeing her from playing yet another soul who's older than her years. Mr. Macy's rock-solid concentration holds ''Panic'' together; he tends toward the same minute strokes we expect of character actors, but with an energy he has not often shown in smaller parts. Perhaps it's because his smile doesn't indicate that he has thought everything through; he exults in Alex's contradictions.
Intriguingly, like many cop-show writers, Mr. Bromell uses the opportunity to stretch as a chance to peer into the insides of stereotypes, as did David Chase on ''The Sopranos'' and Eric Blakeney with last year's hilarious and subtle ''Gun Shy.'' ''Panic'' may have already burned off some of its currency by having played on Cinemax last summer before its theatrical release, which may send audiences a signal that it is unworthy; it seems to be incredibly difficult to sell anything other than plain-wrap crime stories.
Let's hope ''Panic'' is not subjected to the same fate as ''Gun Shy'': audience abandonment.
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