Effective human drama, 'Life of David Gale' offers some surprising twists

By Jack Garner
Gannett News Service

THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE (Rated R, with violent images, profanity, nudity and sex.) Stars: An effective thriller about a vocal opponent of the death penalty who finds himself on death row in Texas, convicted of rape and murder. Kevin Spacey, Kate Winslet and Laura Linney co-star for veteran director Alan Parker. Universal, 130 minutes.

David Gale (Kevin Spacey) is a passionate opponent of the death penalty and has long approached the debate with relentless zeal. But now he's on death row, convicted of rape and murder. And he's only four days away from his own execution.

How he got into that position — and why — is at the core of "The Life of David Gale," a well-made drama that employs the twists and turns of a thriller to generate heat around the volatile issue of capital punishment.

And for its setting, the film goes to ground zero in the debate — the state of Texas, where executions seem more plentiful than cactus or oil rigs.

As a message movie, "The Life of David Gale" is unresolved and some of its plot machinations seem forced. Its cleverness pulls its emotional punch. "Dead Man Walking" remains the definitive anti-execution message film.

But those same machinations succeed when the film is viewed as a classic Hollywood thriller. In that light, "David Gale" is intriguing and, ultimately, quite affecting.

Spacey projects all of Gale's complexity and contradiction. He's a brilliant but flawed college professor, struggling with a failed marriage and the prospect that his wife will soon leave him and take away their son, to whom he is devoted. He's also an alcoholic.

But Gale is also a passionate crusader against the death penalty, and has even confronted the governor of Texas in a television debate.

Gale is a member of Death Watch, an organization that opposes the death penalty, where he works alongside Constance (Laura Linney), a lifelong activist with a few problems of her own.

Their story unspools as a long flashback while Gale sits for an in-depth interview with a magazine reporter named Bitsey Bloom (Kate Winslet) in the final days before his scheduled execution. Gale has been convicted of raping and murdering his friend and co-demonstrator, Constance — a charge he vehemently denies.

In the hours when she's not interviewing, Bitsey and her assistant, Zack (Gabriel Mann) scurry around Texas, trying to prove Gale's innocence.

Like myriad other prison films, "The Life of David Gale" gains suspense from the countdown to execution — and the last-minute rush to try to save his life.

But "The Life of David Gale" goes beyond the cliche to offer a refreshingly original finale (which I won't begin to divulge).

The film lacks the single-minded clarity that would make it a definitive statement against the death penalty.

However, its first-rate performances, its undeniably messy drama and its engrossing suspense make it all the more effective as human drama.

Rated R, with violent images, profanity, nudity and sex.