Gothika

Directed by Matthieu Kassovitz
Written by Sebastian Gutierrez
 

“Logic is overrated"

            This statement is uttered by Miranda Grey (Halle Berry) near the end of Gothika.  It is the kind of phrase you’d associate with either absurdist or surreal cinema except that neither would include the words in their texts.  It is the kind of statement that you find in films so bad that it is more a justification than an outright viewpoint. 
            There is little in the movie that makes any sense from the moment Grey first kisses her husband Doug (Charles Dutton), a large cigar smoker with whom she shares little chemistry.  He runs the kind of psychiatric hospital which deinstitutionalization has pretty much done away with and she is a brilliant doctor who also works for him.  One night on her way home she encounters a distressed young girl in the street, blacks out and then awakes three days later, accused of Doug’s murder and a patient in her own hospital.  Since this is morally and politically impossible in the real world, there is some expectation that the life we saw before was a delusion, but the film doesn’t go in that direction.  Instead it follows the path in which she discovers the young girl has have been dead for so many years, is cryptically trying to avenge her murder and, of course, none of her old friends and co-workers will believe anything she says.  That being the case, the film also misses many chances to explore the over-trodden road of being wrongfully accused, despite its overlong cat and mouse chase through the hospital, in favor of an attempted claim that we should all listen to the insane because they are likely telling the truth. 
            Working with Grey is Pete Graham, played by an underutilized Robert Downey, Jr., contrasting his role in this year’s The Singing Detective.  He fills the role of crushing friend who eventually believes her and aids in the investigation toward her innocence.  Filling out the cast is John Carroll Lynch as the police officer who won’t listen because Doug was his best friend and Penelope Cruz as a patient who seems to be present because she is good in films that like more exposition than necessary (see Vanilla Sky).
           Matthieu Kassovitz made an amazing debut feature a few years ago (La Haine) and watching Gothika is so much more a disappointment because of that.  There are some interesting ideas and sequences almost worth seeing but are basically just showpieces of style in an attempt to overshadow a weak, familiar script.  It is reminiscent of another film with Robert Downey, Jr. by an accomplished director working with material more suitable for low-rent amateurs called In Dreams.  At least that film was somewhat suspenseful.  Gothika is just a series of discoveries that are less than surprising, less than original, and less than logical.  But then, all of these things are overrated, aren’t they?

"I thought they told you in the contract that you'd have to kiss me."