Gothika (R, 2003)

In GOTHIKA, Dr. Miranda Gray (Halle Berry) is a psychiatrist at a facility for the criminally insane. The director of the facility is her husband, Doug (Charles S. Dutton). Driving home on a dark and stormy night, Miranda swerves to avoid hitting a girl standing in the road. When she gets out of the car, she sees that the girl is badly hurt. Miranda tries to talk to her. The next thing she knows, she wakes up in the mental hospital, but now she is on the other side of the glass wall. She is a patient. Doug has been murdered, and all of the evidence points to Miranda as the killer. How can she find out what really happened if everyone thinks she is crazy?

Director Mathieu Kassovitz (who played the love interest in Amelie) creates a nicely creepy feeling with Gothika, though he overdoes the flickering lights and the guess-what's-just-out-of-our-field-of-vision surprises. But the last half and especially the last half hour are both predictable and preposterous. When Miranda explains that "Logic is overrated" in the middle of a climactic confrontation, it feels like a last-minute attempt to justify the resolution of a movie that begins as a promisingly creepy thriller but then falls apart.

Studio: Warner Bros.
Director: Mathieu Kassovitz
Cast: Halle Berry, Penelope Cruz, Robert Downey Jr.
Genre: Thriller
Run time: 95 minutes
Theatrical release: November 20, 2003
DVD release: March 22, 2004
MPAA Rating: R
MPAA explanation: violence, brief language and nudity