The Life of Kevin Spacey...I mean David Gale (The Life of David Gale (DVD))

Member Name: Palmer89

Product:	The Life of David Gale (DVD)
Date:	29/07/09 (54 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Spacey, Winslett, Story

Disadvantages: Not any

The Life of David Gale is a film with an all star cast revolving around the death and apparent murder/rape of a death row abolishinist. David Gale (Spacey) is jailed and put on death row after convincing evidence puts his name as the sole being that could have raped and murdered the woman who was once his colleague at DeathWatch, a group against the death penalty.

The story is told through the eyes of David Gale as he awaits his death in jail, talking to a journalist from a local paper (Winslett) trying to find out what happend that night, as he claims innocence. Gale who was left by his wife and daughter went off the wagon, only one person was there for him and supported him, Constance (Linney), so why did he do it?

The story follows on from David telling his tale to Winsleets chacter trying to find the truth, who did it and why and eventually, will Gale face execution or not...?

The cast in this film is brilliant, I have to say I have only ever been impressed with Kate Winslett in one film before this and that is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, although she is not quite as good in this film as the journalist as she is in that film she more than portrays her role well, Laura Linney, famous to me at least for films such as Truman Show and Love Actually is the woman in question who has been murdered and raped, colleague to David Gale at Death Watch and a Leukemia sufferer, she's also very good in her role as the main woman against the death penalty in her group, she leads marches and conferences. Then of course we get to the lead, Kevin Spacey, been in brilliant films such as Seven, American Beauty, K-Pax, Usual Suspects...the list goes on, so, this can't be another film he's brilliant in can it. Wrong. Spacey is his usual, brilliant, witty and expressionistic self in his role as the former dealth penalty abolishionist now himself on death row, Spacey usually gets out of such situations he's in, you'll have to find out what happens this time around.

The story and eventual outcome come together very well, the whole story is basically a argument for and against the death penalty but put into the story of a man who's life is falling apart with his wife leaving with their child, the final 30 minutes of the film especially revolve around the arguments and evidence that people get put on death row for and whether it's enough to truely ask killing someone for. The film once it's over certainly makes people wonder what the right method is, is the death penalty warrented or is it not...good films make the viewer think back over it and question certain things (ok, not all good films do, but films who do it usually do it for a good reason), Gone Baby Gone does this as does, to an extent, Eternal Sunshine.

The special features on this dvd are very good, there's alot of them, there's deleted scenes which is always a favourite, there's a segment on the music that is played in the film, there's a segment on a death penalty in texas with locals and film makers talking about what they think about it. There's a segment on the making of the film as well as audio commentary, posters, trailers and even sone DVD-Rom features which I have not been so lucky to check out.

Overall, This film warrents its 4* rating, Spacey and Winslett aspecially as the leads are brilliant as one may expect, the story is one of morale judgement and although may be said to have a rather self righteous story to tell the writer and director says they hope to have portrayed an equal argument, both for and against the death penalty. The way the film was shot with the 4 days going by in Spaceys jail and the story being told as he tells it to Winslett is clever and helps us understand at the same time as in film time that Winslett is.

Good and clever film, not quite good enough for me for whatever reason to earn the full 5*, classics and top top class films need something else, for me this lacked something a little, although I can't quite tell what it is, it didn't have that spark that true 5* films do, thats not to say it's not a brilliant film and one I will most likely definatly watch again.

Summary: Great film, Spacey wonderful again