movie's 411

>> GOTHIKA

Starring: Halle Berry, Penelope Cruz, Robert Downey Jr and more...
Director: Matthieu Kassovitz
Genre: Thrillers




a gloomy-doomy ghost story that gets off to a creepy start and then spirals into flat-out preposterousness, french actor-director mathieu kassovitz's english-language debut features halle berry in the kind of bravura role for which actresses claw out each other's eyes. as brilliant criminal psychologist dr. miranda grey, she starts out on top of the world: she's beautiful, highly respected and happily married to her boss, dr. douglas grey (charles s. dutton). one dark-and-stormy-night fender bender later, she's a patient at her former place of employment, the spooky woodward penitentiary for women. when she asks for her husband, she is told that he's dead, then accused of having hacked him up with an axe. no one believes miranda is innocent: not her lawyer (dorian harewood); not her doctor, flirty former colleague pete graham (robert downey jr.); not sheriff ryan (john carroll lynch), her late husband's best friend since childhood; and certainly not the other patients.
miranda doesn't help her case by insisting she remembers nothing about that night three days earlier, except that the storm forced her to take a detour over a small bridge, where she nearly mowed down a bloodied, traumatized young woman standing in the middle of the road. but no one's found any sign of a girl, and when miranda identifies her as the subject of a photo belonging to dr. phil parsons (bernard hill), another former colleague, her credibility is further damaged. the picture is of his teenaged daughter, rachel (kathleen mackey), who committed suicide by jumping off that isolated bridge four years ago.

fiercely rational miranda doesn't believe in ghosts, but ghosts clearly believe in her: rachel has chosen to torment miranda with the enigmatic message "NOT ALONE," and uncovering the cause of the unquiet spirit's misery may be the only way miranda can clear herself. berry hurls herself into miranda's humiliations with the same commitment she brought to her oscar-winning performance in MONSTER'S BALL (2001), gamely enduring bad hair, ill-fitting hospital clothes and hollow-eyed make up. but as the script careens from hackneyed endangered-woman situations to loony implausibility and kassovitz piles up the scary movie cliches, it becomes increasingly difficult to remain absorbed in miranda's nightmare.

overall this is a passable thriller, and halle berry is good in her role which mostly involves lots of running around and screaming. penelope cruz and robert downey, jr aren't really necessary to the overall story and just act as filler. most of the plot takes place in the prison which is quite creepy, made more so by the constant flickering lights (someone really needs to call an electrician), and claustraphobic atmosphere. I thought that the scenes in the prison were the best parts of the movie, the ending itself was actually predictable though there are few clues given to the audience. certainly there is little insight to explain the actions of the characters eventually pegged as the killers which was a weakness. i don't think this movie is in the league of "silence of the lambs" but it is still a decent movie and worth staying up late on saturday night to watch with a bowl of popcorn.

one thing for sure, it scares the hell out of me. i don't know why. maybe because it portrays the mystical image from the stories i've heard so much from indonesia. people getting posessed by ghosts *kesurupan* and so on. the thing is, this movie is for american audience in which they don't appreciate the non logical story. and because of that, it raves a bad review left and right. well, the movie itself was fine. the story was okay. the acting was actually pretty good, but i guess when it all comes down to at the end.. it's just another cliche horror movie with darkness, screams and scary sounds. if only they don't have an ending that satisfy that logical reasoning behind ghost stories.. it woulda scared the shit outta me *well, it scares me already* with all my imaginations forward. the ending stops the ghost stories, the typical hollywood version. and i still wonder what gothika means cuz it was never mentioned in the movie at all (or so i thought).


>> rated by :: sLesTa | [ ]

<< back to movies411 | the classics >>