Gothika
Directed by Mathieu Kassovitz
Review by Rada Djurica
Gothika is a film that promises much more than it really gives. You end up eventually being disappointed.
Not every movie draws its audience with promises of socially significant messages, then offering a stale ghost story instead. The best that a thriller like Gothika can do is simply promise a few chills, a compelling mystery and perhaps nudity.
Miranda (Halle Berry) finds trouble after work during a dark and stormy night. She gets out of her car to help a woman standing in the middle of the road, and the stranger turns into a ball of fire, which of course terrifies Miranda. When we want to scream in fear, however, the movie only makes us wallow in confusion. We want more clues; we want to indulge the mystery, yet the movie ties us down with cut-and-dried explanations.
Even if the story is compelling, with a few celebrities (Halle Berry, Robert Downey Jr., Charles Dutton, John Carroll Lynch, Bernard Hill and Penelope Cruz), the movie leaves the viewer unsatisfied, wondering, "Do we want some more, or is it just enough?" There is a lot of room for more details.
A larger indicator of what's wrong with Gothika: too many missed opportunities, with holes in between. Gothika falls into the trap of famous horror footage, stealing old ideas of what's scary. Maybe that's why it is called Gothika.
But, this is still a promising story, starring Berry as psychiatrist Miranda Grey, who attempts to console a patient, Chloe (Penélope Cruz), who claims that she has been raped by the Devil.
Next thing we know, Miranda wakes up as a patient in the hospital where she formerly worked. She has been told by Pete (Robert Downey Jr.) that she killed her husband. Miranda, however, does not remember the murder and, in a weird circumstance, ends up in her own psychiatric ward, now on the other side of the glass.
There, she’s tortured by the supernatural, with ghosts doing what they always do: harassing her every night saying things like, "Find my killer...find my killer..." Only this ghost has a special way of asking for assistance, since it makes its point by beating her up.
Then it's up to Miranda, all black and blue, to work out the story of what went wrong and when. This isn't easy to do when ghosts are terrorizing her, and every living person she sees implicates her as a psychotic, delusional murderer.
Gothika implies that the spiritual world is real, and that empirical reasoning can’t provide all the answers. But a dark, gloomy and terrifying spirit world can.
In one outstanding scene, Berry takes a bath with other "nutters" in the group shower, when a ghost attacks her. Because she is just another "nutter," nobody believes her.
There are also biblical images mentioned, which is a classic detail of all horror films. Likewise, whispers sound in Miranda's ears, intruders appear in the air, vanishing from her cell...
It also has an "empowering hidden message" for women: if you win, get a haircut.
There's potential for this director to produce something darkly haunting in the future, perhaps with a bit more work. For now, Gothika fails.
"I'm an Oscar-winning actress. I believe I'll get better roles than this someday. I don't believe I'll stick with my agent. I can't believe I agreed to be in this flick," Berry said. I am sure that she regrets it!
The blame should be taken by the director, Mathieu Kassovitz (Assassins), or maybe the screenwriter. Luckily it doesn't last too long. Indeed, Berry is an Oscar winner for Monster's Ball. So what is she doing in such film?
Anyone familiar with the plots of The Sixth Sense and The Ring will find Gothika to be far too familiar territory.