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    Gothika

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

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    Gothika is a horror thriller with a good premise but the execution feels off and it makes for a very convoluted mystery.

    Psychiatrist Dr. Miranda Grey (Halle Berry) works at a mental hospital. After a car accident where she narrowly avoids a girl (that may not have even been there in the first place and is played by Kathleen Mackey) she wakes up to find that she’s a patient in her own work place! Why is she there? What happened? What dark secret does the hospital hold?

    So the basic story is that we have a psychiatrist working at a correctional facility that suddenly finds herself on the other side of the observation room. She has to figure out exactly what happened to clear her name. Once she starts piecing things together she realizes that there’s a lot more going on than she could have ever guessed. Because the movie deals with a lot of detective work and revelations, it’s hard to give examples of exactly what goes wrong without spoiling the mysteries but there are some obvious plot points that are clumsily handled. For example, once committed in a mental asylum and accused of murder, it would be pretty difficult for someone to conduct an investigation on a murder so Miranda has to escape her cell numerous times in order to put together some evidence. It becomes really hard to believe that she would be able to go get out of her cell without being detected in what appears to be a modern psychiatric hospital. There are security guards and cameras but none of the staff are observing the monitors apparently. If they were they would be able to see that there is something supernatural going on and that there are some really questionable things going on at this facility.

    The film also feels like it’s really jumping through hoops to give us some spooky revelations. There is a scene where Miranda gets attacked by what can only be described as a ghost. The attack happens in a crowded room where there were a lot of things going on so it’s possible no one saw what really happened and even if they did, most of the testimonies would have come from mental patients and no one would have believed them. The thing is, the ghost carves a message on our protagonist’s arm and the doctor who patches her up doesn’t even mention this to the doctor that’s evaluating Miranda’s mental condition. Don’t you think that would be something important to mention? After this, she’s placed in an isolation cell: a room with a bed, some wooden shelves but no sink or toilet. Now you don’t have to be a medical professional to see what’s wrong with this picture... what happens if she needs to go to the bathroom? If she were such a danger to herself, why wouldn’t you put her in a padded cell? Why would you place her in a room where she could easily break some planks of wood and use the pieces to harm herself and/or others?

    As the movie moves along you keep asking yourself questions about how certain plot elements make sense and why characters are acting the way they do. At the very end of the movie there is a climax that’s really ridiculous and falls apart completely under even a little bit of scrutiny. You’re forced to believe that either everyone’s memory is really spotty, or that the FBI profilers are all on vacation. I also have some issues with the ghosts in this movie. I’ve always thought of spirits as pieced together bits of memory that are incapable of giving straightforward messages, which is why they have to give cryptic clues and appear and disappear seemingly at random. Even with that in mind, the ghosts in this film act in really questionable ways that kind of help the people left alive piece together what is going on but when you think about it, they’re really not doing themselves any favours. By appearing at the most inconvenient times to our main character and constantly freaking her out instead of pointing her in the right direction, they literally condemned her to a mental asylum! The script is also poorly written, with a lot of bad dialogue including the memorable line “Logic is overrated”.

    “Gothika” is more of a disappointment than a truly bad movie. The premise is good and there are some moments throughout that will keep you interested. I also found some moments genuinely creepy with a couple of good scares here and there. The special effects are well done too. The story feels sloppily put together though; like the first draft of the film is what they decided to go with instead of making it go through a couple of rounds of tightening and polishing. For all of the potential and things that work with “Gothika” in the end it just ends up being a mediocre movie with too many problems to really recommend. (On DVD, April 5, 2013)

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    adamwatchesmovies@  28.2.2016 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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