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I am not a big Halle Berry fan. It's not necessarily that I think she's a bad actress. She's not - as demonstrated by her Academy Award winning performance in "Monster's Ball". I think I'm more against the hype surrounding her. When everybody made a big deal about her nude scene in "Swordfish" I wasn't really fazed. And when she did win her Oscar and everybody was on the Halle wagon, I really couldn't be bothered. I guess I just don't see what the big deal is. And it's because of this that when Gothika came out, I wasn't in any rush to check it out.
Gothika is the story of Dr. Miranda Grey (Berry), a psychiatrist at Woodward Penitentiary. As we're introduced to the character, she lives an ideal life. She's got a good job, a good head on her shoulders and a good marriage to the head of the penitentiary (Charles Dutton). But one rainy night, it all falls apart. On her way home, she runs into a detour. Forced to take another route, she gets into an accident along the way when she almost runs into a pedestrian. And when she approaches the pedestrian, she blacks out and wakes up a patient in her own institution, suspected of murdering her husband. From her, she must question her own sanity as she navigates the looney bin from the other side of the bars. And all the while, she must also try to solve the mystery. Did she really murder her husband? And if so, why?
Having seen Gothika now, I can honestly say that I underestimated this movie. I won't say that I underestimated Halle Berry because she really didn't do anything to wow me, but the movie itself was sufficiently creepy and managed to keep me guessing as to what would happen next. Well done.
This is the second Gothika DVD to hit shelves. The first was a basic edition whose only extras were an audio commentary and a music video. And while that same audio commentary makes this "Special Edition", a second disc contains a host of never-before-seen extras.
The disc's featurettes include a making-of documentary titled "On The Set of Gothika" and a look at the film's visual effects titled "Painting with Fire". The first is a basic making-of look complete with comments from the cast and crew about the film, the story, the set and general behind-the-scenes stuff. We hear primarily from producer Joel Silver and Halle Berry about the movie with little tidbits from Robert Downey Jr., Penelope Cruz and Bernard Hill. When we move beyond the set and behind the camera, we hear mostly from director Mathieu Kassovitz and everybody marvels about cinematographer Matthew Libatique and what an asset he was to the look and feel of the movie. And I have to admit that it was greatly due to the look of the movie that really hooked me. In the end, although this was your standard feature, it was done well enough to recommend watching. "Painting with Fire" was equally as captivating. Thinking back on the movie, I couldn't really remember that many effects - and that's probably the best thing I could say - that the effects were done well enough to not take anything away from the story. And to hear how these shots were accomplished was interesting.
Getting away from the serious side, we get a segment of Ashton Kutcher's "Punk'd" where Halle Berry is denied access to the Gothika premiere (funny stuff) and an episode of MTV's "Making the Video" featuring Fred Durst directing his "Behind Blue Eyes" video from the Gothika soundtrack. These two didn't really capture the feel of the movie, but for fun and games, they're worth a look.
Finally, this disc offers an "Enter Woodward Penitentiary" feature. Here, we tour Halle Berry's character's office and see some of the cases she's working on. We look at why these patients are institutionalized and check out some creepy interview footage. Although this is really just a novelty feature, it's spooky enough and worth watching if you have some spare time.
I really didn't have the highest expectations, and I came away pleasantly surprised. It did nothing to make me like Halle Berry, but at the same time, it did nothing to make me dislike her either. (Again, it's not that I don't like her - just that I don't see what the big deal is!) As for special features, they were fun and really provided some decent insight into the making of the film. Like I said, Gothika really hooked me, and I really can't think of a better compliment.
Check out the official site.
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