Movie Review: The Life of David Gale.... 8/10

[tvordlj]

February 22, 2003
The Life of David Gale

David Gale was a university professor, a published author, a husband and father and an activist against the death penalty, belonging to a group called Deathwatch. He is now 4 days away from execution in a Texas jail for raping and killing his friend, coworker and co-activist, Constance Harraway. He has decided to grant an interview to a reporter, Bitsy Bloom, who works for a news magazine. He desparately wants to leave more for his small son to remember him by than the way he died so he's telling his side of the story.

Bitsy is tough, ambitious, even a little callous, but she has integrity we are told, having just spent time in jail for protecting a source in a kiddy porn story. She and an intern fly to Texas where she conducts three 2-hour interviews, one a day, ending about 24 hours before David's execution. She isn't meant to clear his name, he fully expects to be executed, but he does want her to find out why he's in this situation. The implication is that he's been set up so he tells her his story and we see it in flashback.

His life begins to spiral out of control after a student sets him up on a rape charge and things go rapidly downhill from there. Constance is his friend and remains so, supporting him whenever he needs a shoulder. Yet she ends up dead, naked on her kitchen floor, hands cuffed behind her and a plastic bag over her head and clear evidence that David has had sex with her.

Bitsy starts off believing he's guilty because a jury and many appeals have said so. He's on death row, of course he's guilty. Isn't he? But slowly David convinces her that he isn't and the movie becomes a race to find out who did it. At the end of the third interview, Bitsy has 24 hours to figure everything out and the race is on. The ending was a two parter, both twists I didn't see coming though after the first, I should have seen the second one. Even so, when it was revealed, I wasn't surprised. It did tie it all together, considering all of the personalities involved. There was an intern journalist that accompanied Bitsy but I never really saw the point of him as more than a sidekick.

Kate Winslet plays Bitsy and as always I enjoyed her performance. She started off with a hard shell, professional, ambitious, ready for a challenge. She showed us Bitsy's vulnerabilities exactly at the right times. She seems to be pursuing this case like she probably pursues any cause or story that she emphatically believes in. Kevin Spacey is David Gale. He lays out his story in a very matter of fact way, hardly emotional, as if he's accepted that he's going to die. He doesn't tell Bitsy what he thinks outright but gives her the clues to lead her to it. Spacey plays it very understated and maybe that's not what you would expect from the sort of man he's portraying, one who is dedicated to his cause. He could have played it a bit more forceful but it would be a hard line to find between too much emotion and too much resignation. I think he erred on the side of too much resignation. Laura Linney plays Constance and gives her all the passion that should drive Constance in her pursuit of the abolition of the death penalty yet she isn't strident or hard in her dedication. She's a loyal and steadfast friend to David while dealing with her own personal demons which she keeps close to her chest.

Alan Parker is a good director, and chooses very diverse projects, from Midnight Express to Fame to the Commitments ( my personal favourite) to Angel Heart and Evita. Publicity surrounding the movie implies that your own views on capital punishment will be challenged. I don't know about that. My views on activists were enforced, I do know that. But I did enjoy the movie overall. Good performances, a plot that kept me interested and a satisfying ending.