Gothika
2.5 / 4 stars
R, 98m Starring Halle Berry, Penelope Cruz and Robert Downey, Jr. Directed by Matthieu Kassovitz Opens tomorrow
By the time the climax of "Gothika" comes around, Halle Berry has already caught fire, murdered her husband and been committed to the mental hospital she used to work in. And that's just the first half of this decently terrifying, yet flawed ghost-story thriller.
Flash backwards to the beginning of the film. Berry plays Dr. Miranda Grey, a psychiatrist at a women's mental institution. Here, she deals with patients who have undergone extreme trauma, like Chloe (a lacking Penelope Cruz), a woman who claims that she is being repeatedly raped in her cell.
While Miranda deals with the mentally unstable all day, she doesn't have to worry because each night she returns to her ideal life with her husband, Dr. Douglas Grey, the head of the psychiatric ward.
This all changes when Miranda nearly runs over a half-naked girl while driving home during a severe rain storm.
Flash forward three days. Miranda wakes up behind metal bars and soon learns that she is a patient in the ward and is accused of murdering her husband. She must cope not only with being the main suspect in a murder, but also living among the people she used to council.
What follows is an always scary, sometimes ridiculous storyline dealing with Miranda's struggle to piece together the events that she cannot remember. The plot holes that come along with every development take away from the credibility of the film, but director Matthieu Kassovitz utilizes jerky camera angles and startling moments to detract from the story's flaws.
As the plot progresses, Miranda finds that the girl she ran over is in fact a ghost who is haunting her. Obviously, no one believes her, even when the words "not alone" are mysteriously cut into her arm while she is taking a shower.
The more Miranda discovers about the identity of the ghost girl, the more ridiculous the plot becomes. In a truly disturbing climactic scene, complete with "cover your eyes" gore shots, the storyline convolutes into a messy ending. Little is left explained, but Kassovitz seems to think that it is acceptable to finish a film this way. Best known for his role as Nino Quincampoix in the French hit "Amelie," this is one of his first forays into the world of directing, so certain mistakes can be allowed.
Berry plays the wrongfully accused victim well, with wide-eyed innocent looks and convincing emotional pleas to her colleague-turned-psychiatrist, Pete Graham (played by Robert Downey Jr.). Downey Jr. plays his "good guy" character well, and even though he clearly doesn't believe Miranda, it is still easy to sympathize with his skeptical disposition.
Cruz displays the most disappointing performance in the film. Although she receives one of the top billings in previews, she is barely seen on-screen. When she is on screen, she tries so hard to play a mentally ill patient that she takes her performance over the top.
While "Gothika" will not be Berry's most memorable film by far, it is an enjoyable, though average, horror movie.
