Most promotional posters for "Panic" have a gun on them, and the film opens with that dread-filled suspense music we're accustomed
to. Then a voice says, "You ever get the feeling you're dead?" So begins "Panic," a noirish drama from writer/director Henry Bromell. The voice belongs to Alex (William H. Macy), and he's talking to his therapist, Josh (John Ritter). Alex is going through an unusual midlife crisis: He kills people for a living, under the employ of his father (Donald Sutherland), and he'd like out of the family business now, if you don't mind. He has a wife, Martha (Tracey Ullman, in a rare non-comedic role), from whom he is growing increasingly distant. ("Are you getting enough sex from Martha?" asks his imperious mother, played by Barbara Bain.) He also has a smart 6-year-old son named Sammy (David Dorfman), with whom he has late-night chats about infinity, death and the music of Beck.
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