'Gothika' may be looked at as an exercise in style. The plot is about a psychologist in a women's prison who wakes up one day to find herself on the other side of the bars, accused of having murdered her husband. She needs to prove her innocence, but the film is not what you expect. There will be not too much logic in what follows, and the borders between reality and halucination seem to be crossed by the director and script writer, not only by the characters.
What saves the film is the excellent acting of Halle Berry, Penelope, Cruz, Robert Downey Jr., and all the rest of the cast, the haunting setting, and the way the atmosphere is being build. The institution looks like some gothic building from outside, with blue lighted corridors inside creating an appropriate setting for the mood of the characters. Rain seems to poor almost permanently, kind of reflecting the fluid state of mind of the characters.
This film will not be easy to forget for me. Despite its ridiculous script and the conventional way the plot is being solved, the quality of the cinema is above average. Halle Berry is fantastic, and may have bought back her acting in a James Bond movie. Uneven but still memorable. 7/10 on my personal scale.
