| When
anti-death-penalty activist David Gale is convicted and condemned
to death for the murder of a colleague, reporter Bitsey Bloom
sets out to learn the story behind Gale's crime. What she finds
challenges her belief in Gale's guilt and, finally, in the justice
system.[TRAILER]
STEVEN
SNYDER'S REVIEW
“The Life of David Gale” is
a prime example of everything that’s wrong with “message” movies.
In 2000, a film called “The Contender” was so concerned
in touting the character of Bill Clinton that it neared the status
of propaganda. And this year, one of the worst films will surely
be “The Life of David Gale,” about capital punishment
and one death row inmate who loathed the system even before he
was incarcerated.
But rather than discuss the issue in seriousness, exploring both
the goods and
the bads of the modern-day death penalty, “Gale” becomes nothing
more than a bankrupt thriller, leeching on to the subject as a means of maintaining
its artificial intensity.
When discussing the life of David Gale (Kevin Spacey), the film does gain some
momentum. Gale is a renowned professor, a staunch opponent of the death penalty,
and works closely with Constance (Laura Linney) and a group called Death Watch
to oppose capital punishment across the country.
After one lustful evening with a student, however, Gale is suspected of rape,
quickly losing his wife, child, and job. It is not long before he is, as he
says, “framed” for
murdering Constance, and is sentenced to death by the very system he has fought
against. It is here, in jail, that he confides his story to reporter Bitsey
Bloom (Kate Winslet), and she becomes so obsessed with his case that she begins
investigating
who could have framed him and why.
Now this basic summary does not make “Gale” sound all that bad. It’s
a film told both in the present and the past, with Bitsey hearing Gale’s
story and attempting to apply his facts to her investigation.
But what inevitably drives “Gale” head-first into mediocrity is
a story so stupid that it actually does a disservice to the cause it means
to support,
and a director so out-of-control that he abandons storytelling for pure emotional
manipulation.
“Gale’s” story is just so bad. Yes, Gale has sex with a student,
becomes an alcoholic, and is convicted of murder. But this movie lacks the
sincerity needed for such a dramatic story to succeed.
Gale is shown as a saint, an untainted character who was lured into a sexual
character only because his wife was having an affair, who lost his job thanks
to a mis-guided and “politically correct” University, and falls victim
to alcoholism because he lost everything worth living for. An honest movie would
show his flaws and his weaknesses. But in “Gale,” the filmmakers
are too focused on creating a martyr to give this man any true depth or dimension.
Bitsey’s storyline - “Gale’s” desperate attempt to generate
suspense – is, at best, absurd. She is given clues in random locations
at random times to push the story forward. She is constantly chased by a mysterious
pickup truck that, yep, figures prominently in the climax. There is the conventional
last second race to the jail and the sudden, implausible revelation about the
truth.
Worst is the fact that “Gale” uses its subject of capital punishment
as little more than a crutch to carry its thrills forward. Witnessing this man
on death row, a videotape of his supposed crime, and the watered-down, ethical
debates over executions, some may think of “Gale” as a thinking person’s
film.
But it is shallow, and transparent. A shocking videotape of a murder is not
nearly as powerful as the filmmakers would have us believe, and the film’s constant
reminders of Gale’s imminent execution are terribly self-reflective.
Death is powerful stuff, and it requires absolutely no skill to make someone
contemplate
and reflect on the subject.
The difference here is that “Gale” addresses death without bringing
anything new or interesting to the discussion. It is shocking when it should
be insightful, time and again turning to its idiotic thriller subplot before
its philosophical debate gets interesting. The truth behind a mysterious videotape
is so ill-conceived that it destroys the very debate about capital punishment
that has dominated the film.
“
The Life of David Gale” does not have a believable central character,
fails to create any excitement through its contrived suspense, and consistently
falls
short of confronting a politically-charged subject. It is a complete, and obvious,
failure.
Kevin Spacey, your career is on very thin ice.
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