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COPYRIGHT 2003 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.
"The Life of David Gale" is one of those hyper-articulate messes which inspire awe and a kind of nauseated pity. This is no ordinary cock-up: this is a remarkably talented cock-up, made with wit and feeling and featuring a classic performance by a great actress, Laura Linney. But all the lovely acting and the high intelligence (a former philosophy professor named Charles Randolph wrote the script) have been poured into a stupid story that relies on the rusted mechanics of a routine thriller. The movie is plotted against the clock: David Gale (Kevin Spacey), a philosophy professor at the University of Austin and an anti-death-penalty advocate, has been convicted of murder. After sitting on death row for six years, Gale is about to be executed--in four days--and only the ace investigative reporter Bitsey Bloom (Kate Winslet) can save him. Alan Parker, who has made both good movies ("Shoot the Moon," "Birdy") and terrible ones ("The Road to Wellville," "Evita"), apparently knows no shame, because he gives us such jaw droppers as a rented car that overheats and stalls like a cranky burro just as Bitsey is rushing to prevent the execution. Holding the exculpatory evidence in her hands, Winslet then runs through the entire...
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