neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Gothika
	Mathieu Kassovitz Halle Berry, Robert Downey Jr., Penelope Cruz, Charles S. Dutton, John Carroll Lynch, Bernard Hill 2003		"Gothika" is either a nutty time in the loony bin or a loony time in the nuthouse. Criminal psychiatrist Miranda Grey, played by the criminally lovely Halle Berry, blacks out after an auto accident and wakes up to find herself locked up as a patient in the mental hospital where she's employed. And to really bum her scene, she's been accused of murder. "Gothika" is the first English-language feature directed by Mathieu Kassovitz ("The Crimson Rivers"), a French actor of some renown, and he gets a "B" — for B-movie. The film itself, with a deluxe cast led by Berry, Robert Downey Jr., Penelope Cruz and Charles S. Dutton, is barely worth a "C-minus," because of a muddled script that never really sells its supernatural content. It swiftly sinks to lame, melodramatic dialogue laced with psychobabble, particularly in conversations between Miranda and one of her wackier patients (Cruz). It also telegraphs its climactic revelation way too soon. Kassovitz attempts, vainly, to inject real suspense into the murky, moody-blue "Gothika" with quick-cuts and hallucinogenic flashpoints. Always worth watching, Downey manages a fine moment or two as Miranda's fellow doctor. But you'd have to be crazy to be impressed by "Gothika."