The Life of David Gale is a film with edge-of-your-seat intensity, all-around in-depth performances, and a plot both intricate and meaningful. It has a point, a purpose, a message. If only subtlety wasn’t such a lost art in America’s film industry, The Life of David Gale could have been great.


But in the bludgeon-you-over-the-head-with-a-message world of Hollywood, the film ends up as little more than a mediocre televised campaign against the death penalty. Its power, passion, and high performance level raise the drama bar up to “good" but again, the label “great" is a long way off.

The Life of David Gale is a heavy-duty commentary on one of America’s most hotly debated issues. Unfortunately, it’s rather one-sided, as much of the film comes from the perspective of David Gale (Kevin Spacey), a leading anti-death penalty advocate. Gale is locked up in prison, on Death Row, for a crime we can assume pretty early on he didn’t commit.

The film puts up a brief show of keeping that issue ambiguous, but it’s nothing more than a sham—Director Alan Parker wants you to know and feel Gale’s agonizing frustration as an innocent man facing death for a crime he most certainly didn’t commit. Reporter Bitsy Bloom (Kate Winslet) was sent to Gale’s prison to investigate this very issue and to write up a final interview with a man facing the imminent end of his life.

What she finds is a very normal, well-spoken man with a frightening intellect who leads her on a tumultuous journey through all the events leading to his incarceration. First he explains his early rape charge by a graduate student named Berlin, a charge that was quickly dropped and had no factual backing.

But the charge sticks like bad labels have a tendency to do, and Gale loses his job, wife, and child due to what he (in defeatist attitude) labels “grad student’s revenge." His subsequent alcoholism and loneliness are two case-builders against him in the murder charge.

And apparently he was accused of murdering none other than his close female friend, Constance (Laura Linney), another area anti-death penalty advocate, in a most brutal manner. But he didn’t do it. We know that (and are reminded, over and over again).

After all, a political statement against the death penalty malfunctions when the accused is, in fact, guilty. Yet in the end Gale’s character is undeniably questionable, his actions more than dubious. In an effort to make a complex plot and clearly prove that the system doesn’t work, Parker creates a situation both implausible and inaccurate in terms of the entire population.

Stellar performances rescue this film from the brink of overboard—just barely—by toning down the dramatism to some extent (Kate Winslet is a bit histrionic, but otherwise does a great job as the overzealous, ambitious reporter) and sticking true to the good and bad of their multifaceted characters. They make this film suspenseful, they make it entertaining, and they definitely make it worth seeing.

But the Life of David Gale isn’t a film to open people’s eyes or change their patterns of thinking, despite its best efforts to be just that. It’s one to reinforce hardened opinions one way or the other, leaving little room for social or political change, and lots for reinforced stereotyping of the various debate sides.

The Life of David Gale (103 minutes, at area theaters) is rated R for violent images, nudity, language and sexuality.