'Allo! I'm not contributing to Ciao for the time being but if you are bored / desperate / weird enou...
'Allo! I'm not contributing to Ciao for the time being but if you are bored / desperate / weird enough to wish to continue to read my ramblings, you can find me on Dooyoo under the user name plipplop. See you around! :P
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Dr Miranda Grey is a brilliant psychiatrist who works with the inmates of an American penitentiary for the criminally insane. After a particularly difficult session with a disturbed young woman named Chloe, she goes to the office of her colleague and husband Douglas and shares a drink with him before he sets off home and she finishes off some paperwork. Finally, she grows weary herself and sets off home in her car. As she reaches a regular stretch of the road, she becomes aware of a roadblock and is advised by the attending sheriff that the road is closed due to an accident. To make the short journey home, Miranda must make a detour and travel via a different route. Slightly irritated, she turns round and sets off.
As Miranda carries on with her journey home, she is startled by the figure of a young girl stood in the middle of the road. Unable to brake in time, she swerves the car, skids and careers off the road into a tree. Shaken, but not hurt, she pulls herself out of the car and runs over to the young girl who continues to stand motionless in the road. Calling out to ask if she is OK, Miranda gets no answer but when she gets up close to the girl, she is horrified to find that the girl’s body is covered in cuts and bruises. When she advises that she will help the girl get medical attention, the young girl simply looks up into Miranda’s eyes and screams. And screams. And screams.
Miranda can remember nothing more.
When finally she wakes up, she is back in the asylum. But this time, she is on the other side
of the bars. To her horror, Miranda realises that she is imprisoned in the very place she previously worked, and there is worse to come. Douglas, her husband is dead. Brutally murdered with an axe in the home they had previously shared so happily. Worse still, it would seem that Miranda is the prime suspect, with overwhelming evidence against her. Unable to persuade anyone of her innocence, Miranda begins to think that she is losing her mind and she is NOT ALONE….
Gothika is a mediocre film crying out to be a good one. There are lots of good ideas and some nice creepy touches that will certainly entertain and startle in equal doses. But when the final act is played, you are left with the overwhelming feeling that you’ve seen it all before.
Gothika is a ghost story and ghost stories will go one of two ways. In films, ghosts are either malevolent, mischievous spectres who do their best to wreak havoc and terrify people into leaving their homes. Alternatively, they are trapped spirits; desperate to right a wrong that has them trapped in an eternal prison between life and death. Gothika’s greatest plot element is that you are never quite sure which category the film’s ghost falls into. On the one hand, she seems to be looking for help, desperately trying to make a connection with someone in the world of the living who can set things right. Yet on the other, she is an evil demon, terrifying our heroine and seems intent on destroying her life. As the story unfolds, and the pieces fall into place it all starts to make sense. But is this a story with a Ring-like twist in its tale? That would be telling…
Gothika suffers terribly from clichés. They are everywhere. Throughout the film, it seems to be a dark and stormy night. The loony bin is a huge sprawling building standing in the middle of nowhere like a huge tombstone rising out of the trees. Former friends and employees suddenly seem intent in believing the worst and despite having worked with her for years, they seem quite content to believe that Miranda Grey has transformed into an axe murdered overnight. The sheriff is a slightly odd fellow. Indeed, I would suggest that the American police force needs to embark on a serious recruiutment drive in their rural parts because Hollywood would have you believe that their police officers are all incompetent, creepy or both. The film never feels fresh. It steals ideas from countless other films, notably The House on Haunted Hill, Don’t Say A Word and The Silence of the Lambs. The film’s climactic twist is also terribly silly and disappointing to a story that seemed to be ripping along in a rather exciting way. It feels rather like an Olympic runner who falls at the last 50 metres as a result of tying his own shoelaces together.
Gothika is surprisingly horrific and at times the 15 certification sways more towards the 18 end of the scale. The flashbacks concerning the scenes where Miranda’s husband is murdered are quite brutal and bloody and if you don’t like violent films, then this would probably not be your sort of thing. At the heart of the story is an infinitely more sinister set of events and this can also make for quite unpleasant viewing at times. It is safe to say, however, that the film lacks any gritty edges and that the grisly and gory moments seem to be offset by the more polished Hollywood action that tends to dumb these things down.
Halle Berry is very good in the part and whilst she doesn’t have the most inspiring script to work with, she is utterly convincing in the part. Her increased desperation and absolute insistence that she clears her name put her into more and more perilous situations and she certainly makes you believe that she is caught in the middle of a nightmare. Strangely enough, the role proves to be a fairly physical one and she is also more than capable of keeping up the pace. The rest of the cast, however, doesn’t fare quite so well. As her friend and colleague, Robert Downey Junior (creepy even when he doesn’t try to be) could and should be filed under pointless. He seems to drift in and out of the film with little or no purpose and doesn’t really offer anything to the film at all. Penelope Cruz does her best to be distressed and cranky, but her portrayal of Chloe is a bit too much pantomime for my liking.
Overall, Gothika entertained me in a superficial way but turned out to be rather silly. Where initially, it had kept me guessing, I have to admit that fairly quickly I’d sussed out what was what and then it was all just a case of painting by numbers. If it comes on TV, then it will pass a couple of hours, but otherwise, I wouldn’t make much of an effort to see this film.
Not recommended
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The title ofGothikaprepares you for a spooky, atmospheric thriller with an emphasis on ... more
supernatural mystery. The best way to appreciate the movie itself is to understand that it's a waking nightmare that needn't make sense in the realm of sanity. Makin...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
The title ofGothikaprepares you for a spooky, atmospheric thriller with an emphasis on ... more
supernatural mystery. The best way to appreciate the movie itself is to understand that it's a waking nightmare that needn't make sense in the realm of sanity. Makin...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
A brilliant and respected criminal psychologist, Dr. Miranda Grey (Halle Berry) is an ... more
expert at knowing what is rational. What is logical. What is sane.But Miranda's comfortable and stable life are thrust into terrifying jeopardy after a cryptic encoun...
![Gothika [DVD] [2004]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78509296.jpg "Gothika [DVD] [2004]")
Dec 29th, 2004
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