The Life of David Gale

A superb mystery crime drama type film set in Texas, and based around the death penalty. It stars Kevin Spacey and Kate Winslet…so a pretty awesome cast for a pretty awesome film.

Kate Winslet’s character is set the task of doing the first and last interview of someone put on Death Row, she has the help of her intern and the prisoner, played by Spacey, just has to tell Winslet his story. He slowly goes through his life story. He was a celebrated university lecturer and you see this, then you see his slow downfall. He tells about how he went through dealing with a cheating wife, being accused of rape by an ex-student, going through alcoholism whilst trying to cope with the divorce from his wife and the separation from his son. Then as you near the end of the film, you doubt his conviction. You can see that he isn’t the rape and murder type, especially not of his best friend. Then at the last minute, Kate Winslet and her intern figure out the truth behind everything. They try to save him with their findings, but whether or not they make it is for you to watch and find out.

I really enjoyed the film. It was especially well written. It has the cohesion that a film of this type needs, but it also keeps you asking questions until right at the end of the film, at which point everything is answered.

The editing in this film really stood out to me too. The quick cuts were used, of course. But between the scenes of him being interviewed and of his flashbacks, there are quick flashes of written and typed words that could be used to describe the way he was feeling, both when he retold the story and when the event actually occurred. This isn’t the kind of editing that you see every day, and I really enjoyed the fact that it didn’t stick to the norm.

Overall, I would say this film was a complete success, I enjoyed everything about it. I’d recommend it to anyone that is interested in the study of films, because it isn’t made in your typical manner. I would say that anyone who watches things like Criminal Minds or CSI on TV would like this film.