Gothika

I’ve been trying to find a quirky introduction to quickly describe this film, but the words escape me. Perhaps it is because Gothika is a psychological thriller; but not quite. Perhaps it is because Gothika is a Ghost Story; but not quite. Perhaps it is because Gothika is a Murder mystery; but not quite. Perhaps it is because it was directed by the ‘Mugger’ in The Fifth Element (Gimme the Casssshe!!!), Mathieu Kassovitz.

Gothika has just about everything in it, except for one thing: cohesiveness. It has dark recesses, it has ghosts that jump out from every reflective surfaces, it has murder, blood, lots of blood, and many flashing florescent lights. It follows a criminal psychologist, Miranda Grey, played by http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0000932/ Halle Berry, as she fights to find the truth behind her husband’s murder. She finds herself institutionalized as the only suspect in her own hospital.

Gothika begins with a perfectly arranged darkness. Tints of green and gray overwhelm the film, and bring forth a strong dank institutional feeling. This is a wonderful contrast to the real-world. About one third into the film, things shift. Ghosts pop out from behind shadows, and the tone of the film shifts from an intellectual thriller to a cheap Halloween scare-flick. Then, we jump back into the murder mystery which introduces too many new plot devices far too late in the film.

The fact that this film has so much going on is its greatest downfall. The director tried too hard to make three different aspects come together into one film. First, there was the dark, institutional real world, followed by the mixed up institutionalized world, concluded by Miranda Grey becoming the savior. It was as if each different phase was cut from a different film and poorly edited into one large film with the same actors. There were many scenes where I expected Miranda to say,