The Wake

It seems that Halle Berry, topic of speculation for her dragged on and overdramatic acceptance speech for winning best actress at the 2001 Academy Awards for Monster’s Ball, was all but a twist of luck.

In her latest film Gothika, Berry once again takes on a common role that has epitomized her career with such stellar choices as Swordfish and Die Another Day – can you feel the sarcasm? Berry actually takes a step backwards in her chances of winning another Academy Award, being nothing more than a distressed heroine, which could have been suited for anyone from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre cast.

This psychological horror film, which co-stars Robert Downey Jr. and Penelope Cruz, attempts to capture the clever cinematography and natural scare effect that made The Ring popular. Rather than being convinced of dramatic scare tactics like an abused child climbing out of a television screen, we twitch in our seats from the over-used, pop out, Pet Semetary-like black cat hissing in a tree scenario – but instead of the cat, it is a dove that rises out of the shadows.

Berry is Dr. Miranda Grey, a psychiatrist at Woodward Penitentiary for Women, who mysteriously turns up as a prisoner at the same institution after killing her well-respected, psychiatrist husband (Charles S. Dutton). The ultra-imaginary plot of Gothika is so far fetched that it is difficult to understand how Berry is going to get out of the institution, how she is going to convince the authorities that she is not the killer and, ultimately, why we should even care. The falling action of the film is so extreme that it looks like an easy out just to end the hour and thirty-five minute disappointment.

Highlights to the film include Robert Downey Jr.’s initial attempts at comic relief as Dr. Pete, an overly-blunt co-shrink; still, his efforts are wasted as soon as the plot turns sour. Cruz is an edgy patient named Chloe, who is afflicted by Satan and gives the only glimpse of promising acting, but rarely gets screen time.

What is most disappointing about Gothika is that French director/actor Mathieu Kassovitz, 1996 Cannes Film Festival best director winner for his spectacular film La Haine (Hate), takes an all too easy path into Hollywood cinema by making a mediocre horror flick.

Until Berry can capture audiences like she did in Monster’s Ball, we’ll have to assume that she’ll continue to pick films that sell her body, rather than her acting.