Good story, Not enough for a whole film

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

this movie is very touching i watched it and at the end i bawled my eyes out and i barely ever cry about anything but seeing David being innocent and him getting killed also his final meal wanting to be what he and his son ate for breakfast made me cry so hard it is a great movie and everyone should watch it young or old it is a very touching story i love the story myself and how he got in the situation he is in at the time is very interesting and when we saw that the Constance committed suicide and they blamed it on David is the part where i started crying like a baby i rated the movie a ten because of how good it was and if you are very emotional i don't suggest watching it but if you want to go ahead

The Life of David Gale (2003): Dir: Alan Parker / Cast: Kevin Spacey, Kate Winslet, Laura Linney, Gabriel Mann, Rhona Mitra: Ineffective display of a life full of regret and misery at the hands of a bad decision. Kevin Spacey plays a professor and an opponent of the death penalty whose marriage and job are jeopardized upon sexual activity with a student at a drunken party. Drowning in alcohol with no chance to see his son he finds comfort in a terminally ill activist played by Laura Linney. Kate Winslet plays a journalist sent to interview Gale upon his final week before a lethal injection sentence for murder. His story dictates much of the narrative through flashbacks. Alan Parker is a terrific director who has dealt with death and gloom in superior films such as Midnight Express. In edition to this he is a master director of musicals such as Fame and Pink Floyd: The Wall. Effective setup with numerous plot twists but third act is corrupt in its handling of the message. Asides from a terrific director, it has two strong performances. Spacey delivers a sympathetic performance as he details his story, and Linney steals scenes as an activists but the result of their dilemma plays like a cheap corrupt plot twist. Winslet is seen as a prop who sets out to find answers but it is all for nothing with its cheap payoff. Its theme regarding the death penalty fails to materialize due to its lifeless thriller elements. Score: 5 / 10

This perhaps one of the best movies that received so many poor reviews. Audiences responded to it favorably so I'm not sure what determines if this is a good film. I liked it while it's not without it's flaws. This film is about a college professor named David Gale who is on death row to discredit the death penalty. Gale, Kevin Spacey hatches and elaborate plan to have a terminally ill woman named Constance Harraway to have herself video taped with a bag over her head handcuffed to make it look as though she has been murdered. Bitsy Bloom a journalist played by Kate Winslet is investigating the story suspecting someone else killed Harraway played by Laura Linney. It's not until the end when she views the entirety of a video tape showing Linny's character committing suicide. This comes too little too late when David Gale has already been executed by the time Winslet's character get's to the prison. whuh whuh whaaaahh :(This is a rather contrived but interesting flick. In real life the main character Gale would have to be nuts to martyr himself in such a way to teach society a lesson about the death penalty. In real life it wouldn't prove very ineffective considering our society seldom tends to ever learn a lesson from anything. Usually we keep implementing the same flawed solutions to the same problem yielding the same failed results.

I have seen this movie many times over the last 10 years, and seeing it again tonight, being moved to heart wrenching tears at the end, I had to FINALLY make an official IMDb account and make my very first review. I am an IMDb addict, I scour it every time I watch a movie, and I always appreciate every day people's reviews. Most people say they write their first review about a movie they hate, but for me, it is this piece of genius storytelling that made me finally make the effort to register and review. The story is so completely original. The acting is nothing less than superb. Kevin is so classy and honesty so utterly compelling and believable. Laura Linney proves her commitment to the story, above and beyond where others might put their vanity first. But it is Kate Winslets performance that is the absolute clincher. Please make sure you watch this movie to the VERY end and I guarantee your heart will feel like it is ripped out of your chest. Quite easily in my top 5 movies of all time. And perhaps the best drama I have ever seen. Well done everyone involved in this film. Please do yourself a favor and watch this film, or if you have already, watch it again and again. Not often a truly compelling original storyline comes along like this.