A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Gothika

Date of theatrical release: 2004

Details:

Halle Berry

Robert Downey Jr.

Charles Dutton

Penelope Cruz

Director: Mathieu Kassovitz

Score: 0

The Review: Spooky, creepy, paranormal thriller, with Halle Berry in the driven seat. As a resident psychiatrist in a back-country mental institution, Miranda Grey (Berry) is rapidly and abruptly put on the other side of the glass, as a murder suspect. Atmospheric: darkness and irritating flashing fluorescent lights set the mood. Almost as annoying is Robert Downey Jr in a supporting role.

I rated this in the neutral zone mostly because I kept fighting the theme and development. My identification with the protagonist's clearly-portrayed scientific rationality kept me hunting and waiting for a rational explanation of what was going on; the wait was frustrating and unsettling. The flaw, if any, seems to be in the film's construction, an aspect that somehow does not strongly enough compel suspension of disbelief. Dragonfly, Mothman Prophecies and Sixth Sense all worked for me -- even though on the face of it, they were even more deeply paranormal than Gothika -- simply because there was more care given in each of them to suspension of the rational superego. In the end, the tossed-off line "I don't believe in ghosts, but they believe in me" was simply unsatisfying.

Appropriate lyrics from a Limp Biscuit rendition of The Who's "Behind Blue Eyes."

(30-May-04)

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