THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE ----------------------
Reporter Bitsey Bloom (Kate Winslet, "Iris") is assigned to interview a Texas University professor and anti-death penalty advocate who is on death row for the rape and murder of a DeathWatch colleague. Investigating the crime, Bloom comes to know the man and doubt the system that incarcerates him and tries to save "The Live of David Gale."
British director Alan Parker ("Evita") fails to smooth out the wrinkles in first time screenwriter Charles Rudolph's presumably twisty plot. While Winslet is forced to react to script manipulations like a greyhound chasing a rabbit, Kevin Spacey once again chooses a role in which he can aspire to beatification.
Granted David Gale is fashionably flawed, an alcoholic with an ego his best friend Constance (Laura Linney, "The Mothman Prophecies") tries to keep in check. He jumps at an opportunity for a televised debate with the state's pro-death penalty governor, backs him into a corner, then goes too far and loses when he can't name one innocent man put to death under the governor's tenure. His reputation is eviscerated when he's seduced by a former grad student, Berlin, at a booze-fueled party who then turns around and cries rape (a necessary plot manipulation that's never given proper motivation).
All this is shown in flashback as David Gale talks to Bitsey on the first of her three days' interviews before he is put to death on the fourth. Gale stipulated the terms, which include a half a mil and Bitsey, chosen, he tells her, for her refusal to disclose sources on a kiddie porn piece. Bitsey arrived in Texas with intern Zack (Gabriel Mann, "Things Behind the Sun") whose presence is necessary to show off Bitsey as 'Mike Wallace with PMS,' and a rental car with an engine warning light that goes off at inopportune times. She's also tailed by a mysterious cowboy who hangs back threateningly but never approaches. As David tells her more of the story and Bitsey does her own investigation, she begins to believe that he did not rape and murder Constance. Then she receives a mysterious videotape (in a scene that tries to create suspense where there is none) that puts her in a race against the executioner's clock.
Winslet has a thankless role and Spacey veers between simpering righteousness and sodden self pity, particularly in a ridiculous scene that has him drunkenly braying about Aristotle on a crowded sidewalk. Laura Linney, however, gives a very effective performance as a mousy looking woman of great strength - she raises the bar. Also good is Leon Rippy ("Eight-Legged Freaks") as Gale's colorfully ineffective lawyer Braxton Belyeu and Jim Beaver ("Adaptation") in a small role as the prison's public relations officer.
The film has some amount of entertainment value, but "The Life of David Gale" is essentially a series of setups. Parker films Berlin's seduction of drunken David so that it is quite obvious she's setting the stage for rape claims. After David's initial setup, just about everyone in the film has a shot at setting up someone else, but ultimately it is the audience who is being set up by a selective parceling of information that becomes pretty transparent as the film progresses. Alan Parker has journeyed to the American South with political purpose before in "Mississippi Burning," but this time his message is undermined by more than thriller cliches. When the 'shocking twist' becomes apparent, think about it - the logic is wrong as the justice system has been tampered with by those making their righteous point.
C+
For more Reeling reviews visit www.reelingreviews.com
laura@reelingreviews.com robin@reelingreviews.com
========== X-RAMR-ID: 34166 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 844902 X-RT-TitleID: 10000794 X-RT-SourceID: 386 X-RT-AuthorID: 1487 X-RT-RatingText: C+
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews