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GOTHIKA **1/2 out of *****
 Genres
2003
Directed by Mathieu Kassovitz Written by Sebastian Gutierrez Cast Halle Berry .... Miranda Grey Robert Downey Jr. .... Pete Graham Charles S. Dutton .... Dr. Douglas Grey John Carroll Lynch .... Sheriff Ryan Bernard Hill .... Phil Parsons Penélope Cruz .... Chloe Sava Dorian Harewood .... Teddy Howard Bronwen Mantel .... Irene Kathleen Mackey .... Rachel Parsons Matthew G. Taylor .... Turlington Michel Perron .... Joe Andrea Sheldon .... Tracey Seavers
 | If you had cataracts this is how
Halle Berry would look all the time. | French actor Mathieu Kassovitz has been making a name for himself as a director with such films as La Haine (aka Hate) and the more recent The Crimson Rivers. Based in his native France, he’s managed to establish himself as a respected actor and filmmaker, which of course caught the eye of Hollywood. In Gothika, his first English language film, Kassovitz takes a second spin at thriller filmmaking after The Crimson Rivers, taking with him an impressive cast that includes Academy Award-winning actress and over-exposed make-up commercial queen Halle Berry, the immensely talented and yet always in trouble with the law Robert Downey, Jr., and the beautiful and engaging (although not so beautiful in this film) Penélope Cruz.
Gothika tells the story of Dr. Miranda Grey (Berry), a dedicated and hard working criminal psychologist who, after a late night at work, drives home only to encounter a young wounded woman on the road. This somewhat paranormal encounter results in Dr. Grey waking up and realising she is a patient in her own metal hospital accused of the brutal murder of her husband (Charles S. Dutton), a murder she can hardly remember. Everyone she has come to know in her previous life don’t believe in her any more and after confiding that she is plagued by the presence of the girl she encountered on the street, her colleagues rightly think she’s gone insane. But with the help of friend Peter Graham (Downey Jr.) and fellow inmate Chloe (Cruz), Dr. Grey struggles to reclaim her sanity. Only the words ‘Not Alone’ left by the presence of this girl will help Dr. Grey remember what happened that night and most importantly the mystery of who this young girl is and why she chose her to unravel the mystery.
 | In this film a battered and crazy
Penelope Cruz imagines she talks
to Captain Caveman. | In a sentence, Gothika is a paint by numbers thriller that doesn’t really add anything new to the genre but is certainly a good rainy day piece of entertainment. For the first half of the film we can clearly see a build up of suspense and mood, and a setting up of the style and feel of the film. Not only are we introduced to the characters, but to the visual elements. Kassovitz is very talented in building up the atmosphere, as so demonstrated in his previous film The Crimson Rivers. He adds a level of intelligence to the way the story is set up through the character interactions and also through visual clues.
However, all that work unravels once the film reaches its halfway point where Dr. Grey is an inmate, the film resorts to cheap scares and ‘very been there done that’ elements. Things like the quick cuts set to stabbing musical cues, and the occasional lingering music that almost always gives away anything remotely scary that’s about to happen. These are only minor things that let this film down, the major let down is the script itself that seems to include gigantic leaps of logic throughout the second and third acts. Some aspects, which for reasons of spoiling the ending I will not go into in detail, seem like they exists solely for providing an easy out for the heroine disguised as action or suspense sequences. This is just plain lazy, which makes you wonder how the producers managed to wrangle such a great cast?
 | Ashlee Simpson's giant face makes
an unwanted cameo. | On the upside Kassovitz handles direction better than storytelling as the performances are no less than great, which saves this film from falling totally flat on its face. Berry’s turn as the psychologist turned murdering psycho is quite convincing, and the scenes shared with Cruz are compelling. Equally Downey Jr. is on top form yet again (is there a single movie of late where this guy hasn’t been short of excellent?).
Gothika is certainly not be the be all and end all of thriller genre filmmaking, this is a film that has fine performances all around, but is unfortunately marred by a sloppy script.
Finger_Of_DOOM's reviews also appear on DVD Compare, where they include details of the DVD release. For this review click here.
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