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Gothika (Widescreen Edition) Customer Reviews (46 - 48 of 68 Reviews)

give me a break
what would u think if i told u put halle berry in a horror movie youd say she would suck well u were right in a movie whose title scream hurry mtv gap fans this is another lame scream level horror film to appeal to kurt loder fans halle berry starts reliving life of a psychopath killer toobad she couldnt relive someones life with some acting ability i found this movie about as scary as slicing a watermelon maybe its intense to younger crowds but adults with laugh at the cheesy gore for gore sake being scary has to be actually scary this movie forces it on u with gods of fake blood like i said it woulda been better if the cast all died and it said the end that woulda been the only decent scene avoid this movie its not worth 2 dollars and change

This ghost story puts Halle Berry through the wringer
"Gothika" is one of those movies that is not as bad as you heard that it was although certainly it has some major problems. For one thing the movie tries so relentlessly to be eerie with all the spooky lighting and music that it threatens to be carried along by the style rather than the substance. Then there is the fact that we know that in the "real world" a prison psychiatrist is not going to end up in the same prison where they practiced if the world decides that they are insane. Doing so would mess up the treatment of every patient she had been working with, so we know that Halle Berry's Miranda Grey is there for a reason, which gets us thinking ahead of the plot and trying to figure out whodunnit. Is director Mathieu Kassovitz being so heavy handed that he is obvious or is he skillfully setting up a red herring? Good question. You can answer it for yourself after you see the film.

Miranda is a psychiatrist in a dark and dreary prison where we are introduced to her as she is working with patient Chloe Sava (Penelope Cruz). Miranda seems clinical and cool, if not cold. One of the other staff psychiatrists, Pete Graham (Robert Downey Jr.) seems interested in her, but she has recently wed her boss, Dr. Douglas Grey (Charles S. Dutton). That night, after taking a swim in the prison pool, she drives home during a thunderstorm and is forced to take a detour. The figure of a ghostly girl appears in the middle of the road and Miranda crashes her car. Miranda tries to help the girl, who looks like she has been the victim of something horrible, but then the girl bursts into flames. The next thing Miranda knows she wakes up a prisoner in her own institution where she is told by Pete that she has been accused of brutally murdering her husband with an axe. Miranda remembers nothing.

Chloe explains to Miranda that once you are declared to be officially insane anything you say will automatically be considered to be the ravings of a lunatic. Miranda is put in the impossible position of convincing her captors that she is sane. However, that is really not much of a problem because she is so distraught and confused that she convinces both herself and the viewers that maybe she is insane, and if that is true, then maybe it is true that she killed her husband. Berry's performance bounces back and forth between screaming hysteria and a guarded detachment in an effort to survive everything that is being thrown at her by not only the authorities trying to convict her of murder but also of her own mind. For those that thought Berry's Oscar for "Monster's Ball" did not prove she was a real actress, "Gothika" proves she is clearly more than a pretty face.

There is a paradox in this film, what some may consider a fatal flaw, in that in the final analysis all of the pieces do not fit. Even once you know what is going on it does not really explain everything that is happening. Watch the film a second time and you will see this is clearly the case. However I think this was really more a question of keeping us guessing rather than having problems with story construction. Kassovitz and screenwriter Sebastian Gutierrez are developing a sense of mystery and terror that literally extends to the end of the film where the final scene provides another piece of what is really an unfinished puzzle. Listen to Kassovitz's commentary on this DVD and he will repeatedly talk about what they did to make individual scenes scary, without a clear regard for what it meant for the logic of the film. Either you buy into the end result or this movie is going to grossly offend you. There probably is not going to be any middle ground on this one.

Final Note: Kassovitz earns points by filming a group shower scene with Berry, Cruz, and over a dozen other women that is totally in keeping with the atmosphere of the film. These women are all naked, but the scene is filmed in such a way that they are not nude (that will make sense when you see it). When that scene started I was mentally rolling my eyes at what I thought was going to be coming up next and Kassovitz simply did not go there. That says something.

Well-Executed Isolation, but Weak, Contrived Story.
Miranda Grey (Halle Berry) is a prison psychiatrist trying to make sense of her patients' apparent delusions. Driving home from work one night in the pouring rain, she veers to avoid a pedestrian who is standing the middle of the road. Miranda wakes up three days later to find herself confined to the same psychiatric ward where she used to work. Accused of murdering her husband and terrorized by violent hallucinations, she remembers nothing since her encounter with the pedestrian in the road.

I have to give "Gothika" some credit. This supernatural thriller understands that isolation is the key to horror. Miranda Grey suffers the worst form of emotional isolation because she is considered insane. Her behavior is understood to be irrational and dangerous, ipso facto, because she's crazy. -As opposed to her being considered crazy because of her behavior. Halle Berry is pretty convincing. Robert Downey, Jr. is underused as a fellow psychiatrist at the prison. Penelope Cruz is fine as a troubled inmate. But "Gothika" suffers from the most common horror film flaw: People do not behave as people actually would. The psychiatrists are utterly goofy. The plot is full of holes and implausible coincidences. But, director Mathieu Kassovitz has managed has created some real -if spotty- suspense nevertheless. "Gothika" isn't without entertainment value. It's a worthwhile rental if you're looking for something spooky and mindless.

The DVD: Bonus features include a music video for "Behind Blue Eyes" by Limp Bizkit and a solid audio commentary by director Mathieu Kassovitz and cinematographer Matthew Libatique. I was pleased to find commentary by the cinematographer, as I've wished for it on so many movies. The result is a lot of discussion of lighting, set design, and filming.

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