Gothika

Starring: Halle Berry, Penelope Cruz

RS: 1of 4 Stars

2003 Thriller

Terrible things happen to Halle Berry as Dr. Miranda Grey, a shrink who wakes up as a patient in her own prison psycho ward. Worse things happen to Halle Berry, the historic Oscar winner for Monster's Ball: She winds up in a stupefyingly stupid thriller that calls on her to scream instead of act. True, it's preferable to spouting the convoluted dialogue in a script that wonders if Dr. Grey killed her shrink husband (Charles S. Dutton) -- or was the culprit Dr. Pete (Robert Downey Jr.), her lech colleague, or Chloe (Penelope Cruz), her Satan-obsessed patient, or the ghost of a dead raped girl? Director Mathieu Kassovitz (Hate), knowing he's stooping to lurid cable-movie crapola, turns on John Ottman's jangly music and hopes his first foray into major-studio filmmaking will at least cut it as a fright-night no-brainer. "Not Alone" is the message Dr. Grey keeps receiving from the ghost world. If you're smart, alone is just where you'll leave Gothika.

PETER TRAVERS
(November 20, 2003)