In the wake of her Oscar-winning performance in Monster's Ball, Halle Berry had her choice of roles to take on. While starring in Mathieu Kassovitz's supernatural thriller may have seemed a good idea at the time, Berry's decision to top line this movie should be regarded as an unfortunate career misstep.
The Film
Gothika is a classic example of style over substance. Visually, it is a dark, beautiful work of art. The sets, mostly cramped interiors, and the lighting serve the haunting mood, giving the viewer a pointed sense of uncertainty and claustrophobia. Most of the film is seen through Berry's eyes, and the camera work does an excellent job of placing the viewer in her shoes, both physically and emotionally. Each shot seems and once effortless and carefully crafted, immersing the viewer in both physical and metaphysical space.
Unfortunately, the plot does not live up to the film's high visual style. The central mystery of the story revolves around the lost time from the film's opening, when Berry's Dr. Miranda Grey is an attending physician at a women's mental institution, and the remainder of the film, in which she is a patient at this same institution. Pieces of the puzzle are revealed gradually and deliberately, but each revelation is more ridiculous and contrived than the last. By the time the final surprise is let loose, most viewers will have either already figured it out or ceased to care entirely.
The limp plot is further weighted down by Simon Gutierrez's clumsy script. When Miranda and the other doctors converse, they sound like medical textbooks. For more emotionally driven scenes, there is not one line of dialogue that rings true.
Berry does her best with the material, but there's so little to work from at times she seems not only to be wondering why she's in an institution but also why she's even in this film in the first place. The supporting cast of Robert Downey, Jr., Charles S. Dutton, and Penelope Cruz fare just as poorly, as they've been given even less back story and motivation that Berry.
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