THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE

UIP

RELEASED 14 March 2003

Bitsey Bloom (Kate Winslet) has been asked to interview David Gale (Kevin Spacey), for years a leading advocate for the abolition of the death penalty, who himself is now on death row for the rape and murder of fellow workmate Constance (Laura Linney). Bitsey has four days to uncover what really happened. Gale tells Bloom of his life but will not divulge any information concerning the murder charge, so we get his story played in flashback, fleshing out events in his life such as alcohol and the breakup of his marriage which might be why he is where he is now. But David Gale is an intelligent man and the murder of his friend is clumsy and doesn’t feel right, so Bitsey is determined to discover the truth. But she’s running out of time. Hmm, so it’s a mystery-thriller with a point to make? Not really. I didn’t like Kate Winslet. She’s usually a very good actress but thought she was mis-cast here. There were no surprises to the film and the dramatic ending with Winslet running to the prison clutching vital evidence was laughable. It was half an hour too long, a strange idea of inserting dramatic words between some scenes didn’t work and the direction was generally uninspired. There were a few other things but I won’t go on. More than anything I just found it all a bit boring really. However, I did like Kevin Spacey who was as watchable as ever.

TWO OUT OF FIVE