Gothika
[DVD Info]

Miranda Grey (Halle Berry) is an evaluator at a psychiatric correctional facility for women. While evaluating one of her patients, Chloe Sava (Penelope Cruz), a woman who claims that the devil rapes her in her cell at night, Chloe screams at her that she doesn’t listen from her heart and grabs her and she is drug away by nurses. A normal day at work (sans the little outburst from Chloe), Miranda goes for a swim and then heads home to meet up with her husband Dr. Douglas (Charles Dutton), who is also the boss of the correctional facility. While she’s driving home, she gets stopped by the police. The road has caved in but she should just take the bridge and she’ll get home just fine. When she drives through the bridge, at the last minute she sees a girl standing in the middle of the road and, while trying to avoid hitting her, she runs off the road. Miranda gets out of her car and runs to the girl who seems unresponsive. Suddenly the girl grabs Miranda’s face and screams.

Three days later Miranda wakes up the psychiatric ward…not as a doctor…but as a patient. She is accused of killing her husband. While she spends time in the ward, she keeps seeing the girl she saw on the bridge. Did she kill her husband? Does this girl even exist? Or is Miranda Grey just plain crazy?

Patients get to wear whatever they want, as long as it fits into the dazzling array of grey colors.
There are no alarms in psychricatric wards for when a patient breaks out.
Shower time in a psychriatric ward is a scary thing (ie. not everyone is blessed with a body like Halle Berry's).

"I'm a rational woman. I don't believe in the paranormal and I don't believe in ghosts. But...if you're Rachel Parsons, you'll open the door." ~Miranda.

Mmm...just big plot holes mostly.

I was actually surprised that this was a good movie. It was not original by any means but still good and suspenseful. Gothika was like a cross between The Ring and another movie I can’t think of at the moment. About half way through you kinda get the jist of how it’s going to end…but it was still surprising who/what it was. Halle Berry was pretty good and no one else was really in the movie enough to judge. There were a TON of plot holes too. I can’t really explain them without ruining the movie, but if you see it…you’ll know what I’m talking about. I was also annoyed with some choices the director made. The first 15 minutes of the movie were incredibly quiet (even with the volume turned way up) and then if they were talking outside, the background noise was so loud (i.e. the rain) that you couldn’t hear what anyone was saying. Oh well. There was a lot of suspense but it wasn’t scary, there are a few parts in it that make you jump though. You should see it if you like thrillers but don’t expect something amazing (which is most people’s problem when they go to see movies…they expect too much and are disappointed). Pretty good, I would definitely see again. Because of this, the jury gives this flick:

(Slightly Disturbed)

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