Gothika

Dr. Miranda Grey (Halle Berry) is a successful, attractive psychiatrist working in an asylum for women who are, essentially, insane.

Robert Downey Jr. doing his Al Pacino face.

We begin Gothika with Miranda and her patient Chloe (Penelope Cruz) in a session, working through Chloe’s claims that the devil came, while sleeping, and raped her. Dismissing these seemingly obscene assertions, Miranda finishes her paperwork, has a quick swim and makes her way home to husband; head of the psychiatric ward, Dr. Douglas Grey (Charles Dutton).

On her way home she finds the main route home is blocked by heavy flooding caused by torrential rain. She detours, and

sees a young woman in the middle of the road. She swerves and crashes into the nearby ditch. Slowly she emerges from the wreck to investigate what ran her off the road.

Three days later Miranda wakes in an insane asylum for women. Not as a doctor, but a patient – accused of brutally murdering her husband.

"You can't trust someone who thinks you're crazy."

As the film progresses we watch as Miranda searches for the truth. Dr. Pete Graham (Robert Downey Jr) is assigned to her case, and tries to help Miranda figure out why she killed her seemingly loving and innocent husband.

Technically, the film is a pile of old clichés stirred up and spat out on the silver screen. The audience does not see anything that hasn’t been done (numerous times!) before. You’ll watch thinking to yourself, ‘now, where have I seen that before’ and manage to come up with a handful of titles that already contain an overused technique or two.

The characters, and relationships between characters, are not development properly. At one point we discover Pete once loved Miranda – however there is no apparent tension between the two characters on screen.

Along with the technical clichés, and the underdeveloped characters, there are simply too many discrepancies and faults within the script to make the plot plausible – or enjoyable. Miranda is attacked by a ghost, but no – the guards have cranked their TV too loud and only figure out something's happening when it’s too late! Now where have I seen that before…?

Halle Berry’s performance was decent. At times she overacted (reminding me simultaneously of John Travolta in Swordfish and Al Pacino in Heat), but remained fairly faithful to a confused character who’s forgotten killing her beloved husband. It felt as if she was grasping at what character she could, as the screenplay didn’t give her much to work with. Robert Downy Jr was quite good, as was Penelope Cruz (whom I normally hate).

Gothika felt like a film made by a first-timer in the film business. There were too many little things here and there that distracted it from being decent. Hopefully the next big-budget effort from the French-born Mathieu Kassovitz will have a little more substance.

Gothika is presented in 16:9 enhanced 1.85:1 widescreen.

I was quite disappointed with the quality of this transfer. As far as I could tell there was no print damage, and very few compression artifacts.

Penelope Cruz; Parked car chaser.

However, the black levels were very poor. Gothika is a very dark film. Cinematographer Matthew Libatique has specifically lit the vast majority of the scenes to portray a very sterile, cold and dark facility. The ‘greyish’ nature of the blacks substantially took away from the intended atmosphere Libatique created.

Each shot is filmed through a blueish-grey filter that works effectively, but takes away from some of the rich colour the film would have benefited from.

20th Century Fox’s release of Fight Club (1999) is a far superior transfer that is directly comparable to Columbia’s release of Gothika. Blacks were much blacker. Colours were much richer and seemed less washed. Shadow detail was much better and it was overall a much better transfer. I expected substantially better from this new release, but was unfortunately disappointed.

The layer change (53:43) was reasonably well put, between two scenes. Apart from very briefly interrupting the sound effects, it remained relatively unnoticed.

While the transfer wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t terrible. The black levels were my main concern, as they took away from the intended atmosphere of the film.

Gothika’s soundtrack is delivered in both English and Italian Dolby Digital 5.1.

As I sat watching Gothika I couldn’t help but notice video flaws that seriously caught my attention; however to my surprise the soundtrack was far better than the visual transfer.

Dialogue was very clear, and easy to understand. Robert Downey Jnr’s mumblings were often a strain on the ears, but I managed to identify what he delivered. The audio seemed perfectly synched with the video. No complaints!

Surround channels were used to great effect, especially during the many thunderstorms featured throughout the film. The flickering of lights and the murmur of voices were also excellently delivered through the two rear speakers. When the action remained dormant (or even in times of action!), the surround channels were filled with ambient voices or John Ottman’s score.

The subwoofer was not used as much as I’d have preferred, but still delivered a punch when needed. Loud claps of thunder and the low bass tones of Ottman’s score were really the only events that were accompanied by the sub.

One aspect of a classic (or cliché!) horror film is the dramatic buildup of tension (usually through music or sound effects) and the silence that quickly follows – signaling to the audience they’re in for a fright. Gothika used these silences frequently, and to effect. There was no hiss or unwanted technical audio problems during these moments of total silence, which was a blessing.

Overall, the soundtrack was very pleasing. Given a little more use of the sub I’d call it reference quality.

Director (Mathieu Kassovitz) and Cinematographer (Matthew Libatique) deliver an Audio Commentary (one track, they discuss aspects of the film).

It's a rather decent commentary. Kassovitz leads the discussion as Libatique provides some comments on the photographical production behind the film. Libatique has done better commentaries (Requiem for a Dream is a definitive), but this isn’t too bad.

On the Set of Gothika (16:09) – Your standard documentary on the making of the film. Halle Berry and Mathieu Kassovitz (and other cast/crew members) make comments on the script, the main development of the plot and the development and progression (!?) of the characters.

Indiana Berry and the Raiders of the Lost Knife!

Painting with Fire (7:04) – The cast and crew make comments on some of the great computer-generated graphics used throughout the film. Interesting insight into the visual effects department, but this featurette doesn’t go into anywhere near enough detail as to how the CGI was developed.

Making of the Music Video (19:17) – MTV made documentary behind the making of Limp Bizkit’s Gothika inspired video ‘Behind Blue Eyes’. Fans of the song will enjoy this behind the scenes look at how it was thrown together.

Mental Patient Interviews – these are strangely creepy. An interview, some drawings and a doctor’s report for three different insane women are on offer. I have no idea whether or not they’re real (I highly doubt it), but they’re entertaining (in a sadistic sort of way…!).

“Limp Bizkit – Behind Blue Eyes� Music Video

Nine Trailers – Gothika, Spiderman 2, Big Fish, Hellboy, Secret Window, The Missing, Identity, Panic Room, Thirteen Ghosts.

The three featurettes and the music video make the extras basket worthwhile for fans of the film. The commentary is decent too, but you’d only want to listen it if you’re a diehard.

Gothika was ultimately a cliché and relatively un-original supernatural thriller. If you’re in the market for this type of film, you’d best head for The Sixth Sense or even The Ring. The DVD was adequate. I found the visuals to be quite lacking, which was compensated for in the audio department. The extras were decent, but nothing special.

For fans of the genre I’d recommend a rental; but for those who aren’t there’s a lot more worthy of your precious $6.50.