The Life of David Gale (2002)
Film: The Life of David Gale (2002)
Director: Alan Parker
Starring: Kate Winslet, Kevin Spacey, Laura Linney
Rating: ****
It’s pretty much a no brainer that any film script strong enough to ensnare Kate Winslet, Kevin Spacey and Laura Linney will turn out to be good (and, for the record, if you loved Spacey before, you’ll be floored by this performance). But it’s not just the performances which are strong in Parker’s fast-paced thriller which explores the controversial issue of Texas’s Death Row.
When spunkily-named journalist Bitzy Bloom (Winslet) is chosen by convicted rapist and murderer David Gale (Spacey) to record his story in the three days leading up to his execution, the question on everyone’s lips is “why her”? It soon becomes clear that she’s just the girl for the job that needs doing: with her endearingly enthusiastic intern in tow, Bloom finds herself conducting far more than an interview, and her detective mission becomes an emotionally-fuelled race against time as she jostles with the evidence for Gale’s conviction. An unusually melodramatic performance from Winslet is a bit of a shame, but she’s nevertheless engaging.
If the film fails to evoke the fear of, say, the comparable The Silence of the Lambs, the reasons become clear by the end. Clichéd production choices, such as flashes of words such as ‘destruction’ and ‘brutality’ from written reports, are forgivable as this is one of those rare thrillers that has the right amount of suspense, wit, and heart to be simultaneously gripping and easy to watch. It’s a sort-of commercial gem, which successfully keeps you guessing about Gale, and fundamentally asks: if evidence is so precarious and the law is subject to such inequality, how can the old ‘an eye for an eye’ theory still be justifiable?
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