GOTHIKA

Yeah...I know this movie came out like 7 years ago, but I had never seen it and it was on HBO this morning so I figured I'd waste an hour and a half and check it out.  I like these type of psychological thrillers, so I was hoping this would be pretty good.  While it was pretty suspenseful at times, the first half of the movie drags on and on, and the 2nd half unfolds with utter confusion and little makes sense.

Miranda Grey (Halle Berry) is a psychiatrist at a mental hospital/prison that has some major, major electrical problems (the prison that is, not Halle).  She leaves work one night, in a driving rainstorm of course, sees a girl in the middle of the road, and drives her car off the road into a ditch.  Next thing you know, she wakes up as a patient in the same hospital, with little memory of what happened.  She's told that her husband is dead, butchered even, and the bad news is that she's the only suspect.

Grey is intent on proving her innocence, which gets increasingly difficult with each ghost sighting and apparition she encounters.  Penelope Cruz co-stars as a fellow patient seeing and feeling the same hallucinations as well.  This is where the plot comes completely undone and the movie unravels.  Grey manages to escape from the prison, realizes the horror of what she's done, and uncovers a shocking secret of her former husband.

The problem I have with the film is that while the first half of the movie bores,  the second half the movie makes no sense.  How she uncovers what transpired is ridiculous and is very confusing.  Furthermore, Robert Downey Jr.'s  talent and character (fellow Dr. Pete Graham) are wasted in the film.

I found some of the shock and scare tactics a bit heavy handed, but I'll admit that there were times I felt genuinely uncomfortable.  I just wish the movie made more sense.  Not highly recommended for this one.  2.5 out of 5 stars...