'Gothika' is a supernatural letdown

Friday, November 21, 2003

By Barry Paris, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Guy goes to psychiatrist, requests a quick verdict. "You're crazy," says the doctor.

	'Gothika' RATING: R for violence and brief nudity STARRING: Halle Berry, Robert Downey Jr., Penelope Cruz DIRECTOR: Mathieu Kassovitz

Patient is outraged: "I want a second opinion!"

"OK," says the shrink. "You're ugly."

Halle Berry has a similar problem -- except the second opinion is that she's gorgeous -- in "Gothika."

Berry plays Dr. Miranda Grey, brilliant criminal psychologist at the Woodward Penitentiary for Women, where her husband (Charles S. Dutton) is director. One dark and stormy night, she awakes from a horrific car accident to discover her hubby murdered and herself the chief suspect, now confined among the female psychopaths she used to treat. One of them is murderess Penelope Cruz, whose claims of satanic torture Dr. Halle had previously dismissed.

Is she possessed by some supernatural force? How well can I identify with Halle's descent into madness and the fact that nobody believes her, least of all her former colleague and now dubious doctor-in-charge, Robert Downey Jr.

Director Mathieu Kassovitz was much hailed for "La Haine" (Hate), a powerful 1995 drama of life in the Parisian housing projects. This time around, he aims for a thriller but is scuttled from the start by an outlandish screenplay: Sebastian Gutierrez, who authored the fine "Judas Kiss" (1999), is the author here of a lame, far-fetched pastiche full of chintzy lightning, overbearing music and hackneyed effects ripped off from "Repulsion," "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Shining." There's not a believable moment or plot twist in the whole thing.

Downey, one of my favorite actors in the universe, is a completely wasted, forgettable letdown. That leaves Charles S. Dutton and John Carroll Lynch to carry the male burden of the acting and the story, with notable lack of success.

They must've sold this to Halle Berry on the theory that it could be her equivalent of Audrey Hepburn's "Wait Until Dark." But Berry's well-deserved 2001 Oscar-winning performance for "Monster's Ball" is neither vindicated nor repeated. As Miranda here, somebody should have read her the right to remain silent -- or preferably absent.

Barry Paris can be reached at 412-263-3859.

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