Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Our man in Chicago is back with his look at Alan Parker’s upcoming polemic on the death penalty, and he doesn’t seem to be rewriting the general reaction to the thing so far. Shame, too. I like Parker, but his missteps seem to be particularly painful when they occur. Here’s Capone with the details...
Hey, Harry. Capone in Chicago here. I’ve noticed a lot of (mostly negative) talk on the site lately about THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE. Two of the film’s stars, Kevin Spacey and Laura Linney, have embarked on a nationwide tour of mostly college campuses in some strange effort to partly promote the film and party to gauge what the emotional climate is in the country to yet another film focused on the issue of the death penalty. There are few places in America today where the issue is more volatile and timely than Illinois, where just a couple of days ago our now ex-Governor Ryan commuted every death row inmates sentence to life without parole. Needless to say, when I was invited to a screening in downtown Chicago (not to be confused with the screening the day before at the University of Chicago) of THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE, complete with the Spacey and Linney Q&A to follow, my mood was right to watch a serious film tackling these important issues. And as soon as that film is made, I’ll let you know. In the meantime we have DAVID GALE, a non-so-thrilling thriller with the debate on the death penalty serving as window dressing.
Where do I even begin with the colossal mess? There wasn’t a single plot “twist” in this film that I didn’t see coming a mile away. Spacey plays David Gale, a University of Texas (that’s right, it’s set in Austin) professor who is also one of the state’s leading advocates for abolishing the death penalty. Cue irony: he now sits on death row with only four days to live. He has summoned a crack reporter to give his last and only interview before his death. For reason that aren’t really explained he picks Bitsey Bloom (Kate Winslet) to tell his story to. At first she’s doesn’t buy his story that he’s been framed for the rape and murder of a fellow advocate, Constance (Linney), but soon she’s championing his cause and racing against the clock to save him. Okay, didn’t THE PLAYER make fun of this exact movie 10 years ago?
Much of the film is told in flashbacks as Gale tells his story to Bitsey during a series of three, two-hour session leading up to Gale’s execution. We learn that Gale was at one point falsely accused of the rape. The charges were dropped but the damage to his career and marriage were done. He also has a serious problem with alcohol and his own ego. In other words, Spacey gets about fifty chances to Act. Is this a film about the death penalty? Is it a love story between Spacey and Linney (who, it turns out, has leukemia; yet another plot device thrown in for the sake of throwing in another plot device)? Is it a thriller (there’s a car chase, so maybe it is)? Is it a film about Gale the alcoholic? Is it a family drama about Gale losing his wife and son after his sexual liaison/rape is revealed? Is it about the most anti-Texas movie I’ve ever seen? It’s funny how all of the Texans who oppose the death penalty in this movie don’t have accents, but all the ones that are for capital punishment are raging hicks.
I don’t want to ruin any of the plots 200 or so plot twists, but the there’s final sequence in the film where Bitsey watches a video that reveals more than she might want to know about the Constance’s killer that seemed totally unnecessary (and I said so to Spacey during the Q&A) and added nothing to our appreciation of any of the characters or the film. There’s just too much going on here, much of it does nothing to further the plot or develop any of the characters, and by the end of the film I stopped caring who killed Constance. There are rouge videotapes being viewed and rushed every which way. And yes, there’s even a scene where Bitsey is racing to the prison with valuable evidence to stop Gale’s execution. (No, I didn’t just ruin the ending of the film. Don’t worry.) There are clues to the secrets of this film that are about as hard to find as Waldo. Start by watching Spacey’s Buddha-like performance during his scenes with Winslet. He knows all and slowly pieces out information to her like he doesn’t care whether he dies or not.
Ultimately the flaws in DAVID GALE rest in the hands of first-time screenwriter (and Texan) Charles Randolph and director Alan Parker. This guy made MISSISSIPPI BURNING, MIDNIGHT EXPRESS, SHOOT THE MOON, THE WALL, BIRDY, THE COMMITMENTS, and ANGELA’S ASHES; he should know better than to be so bloody obvious. Winslet and Linney do what they can with such limited material; Linney probably will have the least damage to her career as a result of the film. But perhaps more than anything, the death penalty should be given far more respect as an issue than this film gives it. I can’t imagine that no matter what side of the issue you stand on that you won’t be offended by the ham-handed handling of it in THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE. There probably will never be a better treatment of the issue than there was in DEAD MAN WALKING. DAVID GALE pales so badly to that wonderful film that I don’t even know why it was made.
As for the Q&A, it almost made it worth sitting through the film to hear such talented and personable actors talk for more than an hour about every aspect of acting and filmmaking. The audience even coaxed a few impressions out of Spacey. I was the only person who voiced a criticism of the film, so maybe I’m the crazy one, but I don’t think so. Not that I’d expect anything less, but Spacey answered my comments gracefully if not completely. The film opens February 21.
Capone
