"Danika"- surprise within a surprise

Because I woke up very early this morning, I watched the film “Danika.”


Fom Wikipedia: Merrick (Marisa Tomei) suffers from increasingly disturbing paranoid hallucinations. Most of her hallucinations involve threats to her family and media-fueled fears such as child kidnappings, car accidents, her children lying, and terrorism. Danika confides to her husband, Randy (Craig Bierko), and Evelyn (Regina Hall), her psychiatrist. The movie begins with Danika apologizing for her tardiness, and being scolded by her bank manager about incorrect collections. Her manager leaves the office instructing Danika to correct the errors, and remain in the office. Danika then witnesses a bank robbery in progress with two trigger-happy robbers shooting anyone that moves. The alarm goes off and the robbers force Danika's boss to tell them where the security monitors are located. The manager points to her office where a shivering Danika seeks shelter in the corner. As the door opens, she expects to come face to face with a gun toting bank robber, but is confronted by her manager who wonders what is wrong with her. The movie continues with increasingly paranoid events .

I had not heard of this movie but the blurb for it indicated it is a psychological thriller. It is for about 15 minutes but I anticipated the “surprise” ending about an hour into the film. I won’t give it away, but the children will give you a clue as they morph throughout the movie. Marisa Tomei plays the title character with appropriate hysteria and fear. Craig Bierko walks through every part I have seen him in. The real shocker of the movie is seeing Regina Hall as a therapist. At the San Diego Film Festival in 2006, she won the "Best Actress” award for her role. In case you forgot she is best known for her roles in the “Scary Movie” franchise. “Danika” kept my attention until I figured out the ending. After that I watched it just to be sure I was right.