Danika

I like Marisa Tomei, and I wanted to like this film, but it didn't work for me. It kept me interested up to a point, but it played out like a dull, overlong episode of Ghost Whisperer, with a terrible ending.

Danika Merrick (Marisa Tomei) is a troubled suburban mom married to Randy (Craig Bierko). She is hounded by confusing visions and treated by her psychiatrist Dr. Evelyn Harris (Regina Hall). One vision of a bank robbery gets her fired from her bank job. She has hallucinations of a dead girl and haunted by a school bus.

It's a confusing jumble about a troubled mind. It's a jigsaw puzzle that is always expected to come together. For a better result, the movie needs to present a more standard life with bad hallucinations. It can't be that jagged and jumbled. That way, the final reveal of the reversal is more compelling. There is an interesting reveal with Evelyn but the others are not that compelling.

Movie has some atmosphere and some elements like those of "Sixth Sense" but ultimately fails to deliver.. something goes wrong in the last part of the execution and the movie loses all coherence and logic..

You could sum it by saying bunch of weird stuff happens and in the last 10 minutes you find out why that weird stuff supposedly happens (that of a fractured mind they hint at.. however given the way the movie played I don't think of it as a fractured mind.. I thought of it as supernatural) Anyway.. I would suggest if you're bored give it a watch.. it's better than some Hollywood productions but this is not shear movie making excellence..

Relatively new cinematic team of director Ariel Vromen and writer Joshua Leibner pounce onto the scene with a surprisingly fine little film that has basically gone unnoticed. DANIKA is a story that demands the viewer's careful attention and rewards that attention with a finely wrought surprise ending. This is a tough movie to review: almost anything that is said about it diminishes the impact of a fresh look.

Danika (the superb and grossly underused actress Marisa Tomei) is a beautiful, well-dressed successful professional woman, loved by her husband Randy (Craig Bierko) and her children Kurt (Kyle Gallner), Lauren (Nicki Prian) and Brian (Ridge Canipe). Yet even from the opening scenes we can tell something is amiss: Danika 'sees' disturbing things, terrifying events and people that alter her attention to her job and her family. She visits a young psychiatrist Evelyn (Regina Hall) who becomes her confidant - the only person who accepts that Danika is witnessing disturbing sights. A mixture of critical pieces of disastrous events flash before Danika's eyes as well as flashbacks to some years back when her children were young. Danika overcompensates for her fears by being an overprotective mother, an unfortunate trait that begins to fracture her family.

The pace of the film changes to rapid fire events as the reasons for Danika's visions become clear: we finally see just what made this brilliant and strong woman the victim of a terrified and disturbed psyche and the manner in which each of the characters in the story impacts this discovery is well-illuminated. The surprise ending scene is a stunner and one that will haunt the viewer.

Marisa Tomei makes this very difficult, well-written role completely believable. She is an actress of enormous gifts. Likewise the remainder of the cast offers such fine ensemble work that credit must be given director Ariel Vromen for being a young talent on the rise. Yes, there are some portions of the film that beg credibility but then that is what delusional thinking is about. This is a tight little film that deserves attention. Grady Harp

It's quite short and a bit like an extended episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Marisa Tomei is pretty darn good. The ending might enrage many but tries to make its point about mental health.