The Life of David Gale

Grade: D+

Better known as the death of Alan Parker’s career. It is most difficult to trash a dismal “mystery thriller with strong political overtones” sort of movie without giving away important plot twists and turns, especially since doing so would probably help keep people from seeing this frustratingly awful dirge of a film. But I won’t.

The premise is interesting enough – an anti death penalty activist is found guilty of murdering his comrade in arms and is himself committed to death. In the days before his sentence is to be executed, he allows a reporter into his life, who begins the search for the truth as time begins running out…

Unfortunately, what starts as a promising concept quickly becomes a ludicrous, cliché ridden, over-wrought, melodramatic, and highly irritating movie-going experience. Kevin Spacey is fine when playing the sober professor turned convicted killer, but too often is shown in flashback playing an over-the-top scenery chewing drunk – one scene has him babbling a drunken lecture on Socrates in a crowded street, yet another has him literally ripping a public telephone off of its stand, several scenes have him waking up on people’s lawns and sleeping in cars…the entire film is either very obvious and calculated or hostility inducing implausible. Car chases end when moving trains cut one car off from another…Texas lawmakers quote the bible on televised debates….cars break down at precisely the worse moments possible…even terminal diseases make an appearance here.

The dialogue is often of the “stop the film, look into the camera, and say something truly profound” variety, as when Spacey – tears streaming – declares, “she left the world a better place than the one she came into, and that’s saying something.” Ugh.

To make matters worse, Director Alan Parker feels the need to put away his shovel and instead smack us over the head repeatedly with a snow plow – the transitions between past and present are truly not to be believed, as the screen starts swirling, music starts blaring, and words like HATE – VIOLENCE – LIES – LOVE – PASSION flash onto the screen. It’s all “claw one’s face in horror time” folks.

Without giving anything away here, the more the mystery behind the murder unfolds, the more absurd/offensive/stupid/annoying the film becomes. Huge chunks of the film that came before become either pointless or plot-holed, as the thing “builds” to a sanctimonious and “who really cares” conclusion. As a thriller it’s a mess. But more importantly, as a political treatise it’s a destructive insult to a movement it purports to support. Death penalty supporters will be using this film for years to demonstrate how pathetic and misguided their opponents can be. Nice going guys.

It’s to the actors’ credits here that they manage to turn in decent work amidst this garbage. Spacey is fine 50% of the time, Kate Winslet does okay in a role that gives her virtually nothing to do but react to evidence, and Laura Linney is, well, such a fine actress everything she touches turns to gold, even in a drippy role that rivals Mimi’s in “La Boheme,” cough cough. Fans of “Gilmore Girls” will delight in a cameo by Melissa McCarthy, aka Sookie, who steals the show albeit in two of the film’s most absurdist scenes.

Someone should get the electric chair for this thing. Or, at the very least, life imprisonment without any chance of either parole or a dvd/video release.

More Movie Info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0289992/