JODIE Foster makes a welcome return to the big screen in Panic Room (15) a psychological thriller from director David Fincher.

Fincher's previous credits include Seven and Fight Club, films where visual style held sway over content.

In Panic Room a determined performance by Foster, who was drafted in as a late replacement after original star Nicole Kidman injured a knee filming Moulin Rouge, ensures that the content holds its own alongside Fincher's penchant for swooping camera angles and clever shots.

Foster plays a recently-divorced mum of a sulky 12-year-old trying to rebuild her life. Fortunately the ex-husband is a millionaire, which allows her to buy up an expensive four-storey house previously owned by a reclusive tycoon.

Events to follow are neatly set up by an estate agent who shows Foster and daughter around. The tour includes a stronghold in the centre of the house, known as a panic room and intended as a retreat from intruders.

This is a testament to the persistence and violent tendencies of New York burglars. In Britain the nearest we have is a tennis racket, a torch and a stern voice.

Fincher has no time to hang around so the action kicks off the very first night Foster and daughter have settled in.

Three criminals, leader Jared Leto, unwilling panic room designer Forest Whitaker and armed nutcase Dwight Yoakam, break in, intent on stealing a huge stash of money rumoured to have been left behind by the tycoon.

The intruders have been told the house is empty so meeting Foster and daughter is a bit of a shock.

She and the daughter flee to the safety of the panic room and that, you would think, is that the criminals can get the cash and go home and everyone is happy. But this is a film remember and nothing is that straightforward.

The cash is hidden in the panic room.

What follows is a battle of first physical and then mental powers as the three men try to break into the pair's hideaway.

When brute force fails Whitaker, who knows far more than his prey about the construction of panic rooms, looks to other more subtle and menacing ways of getting in.

Foster is magnificent as the mum on the edge of a nervous breakdown. At the beginning she is nervy and submissive but as the threat to her and her daughter increases, the resourceful inner self that we saw in Silence of the Lambs and The Accused begins to show itself.

The action, which never lets up, does not suffer from being confined to such a small area, indeed the claustrophobic atmosphere only serves to heighten the tension.

Fincher also extracts believable performances from his three villains. Only Kristen Stewart as the daughter whines so much you wish Foster would use her as bait.