by MATTHEW HAYS

Alan Parker’s latest film is about what you’d expect when a director this shallow, manipulative and liberal approaches the social issue of the death penalty.

That isn’t to say that The Life of David Gale is a bad movie - it’s not. In fact, I’d say it’s pretty good. And there’s a cool plot twist involved; at times, the film resembles more of a whodunit then a social issue film. Kevin Spacey plays Gale, a man who has been convicted of murder and awaits his execution while on death row. Kate Winslet is the reporter who’s granted an interview with him but one week before he’s set to fry. Is Spacey guilty or isn’t he? As the clock ticks, Winslet becomes convinced there’s more to this story than meets the eye (a staple of the death-row movie - and pretty bloody obvious, or else there wouldn’t be a movie). There are plenty of flashbacks, some pleasing character development and a wicked cliffhanger of a conclusion. This movie certainly won’t change your life, and it doesn’t rate up there with a Hollywood death-row classic like I Want to Live, but it’s more than passable entertainment. And Spacey, Winslet and Laura Linney are all fine in their respective roles.

I suppose death-row movies take on entirely different connotations depending on what side of the 49th parallel you’re on. It is astonishing, really, that the U.S. still clings to such an uncivilized practice and seems overwhelmingly immune to international shame tactics about the death penalty. I suppose it’s the penalty the country itself must pay for electing utter boneheads like George W. It’s both depressing and shocking that death-row inmates - overwhelmingly non-white and poor - are still being murdered at such an astonishing rate, especially when one considers that virtually every other Western democracy has abolished the practice.

Another film that takes on America’s addiction to capital punishment is The Last Meal, an excellent and striking local documentary by Julien Élie. The 68-minute film juxtaposes footage of gleeful George W. Bush campaigners in Huntsville, Texas, as they hear news of their governor’s victory in the 2000 presidential race with protests a mere few blocks away, where state officials prepare to roast convicted killer Miguel Flores. (The concept of running the victorious night for Bush only works to an extent, seeing as the election night is now famous for dragging on for several months afterwards, due to the electoral officials’ difficulty in calling Florida.)

Huntsville, we learn, is the American capital of the death penalty, and 2000 sets a new record: 38 killed this year! Élie reserves outright judgement of the people involved, carefully interviewing the relatives of dead victims of violence who support the use of the death penalty. This is a truly disturbing slice of Americana, an unblinking gaze into the absurdity and contradictions inherent in what is the most powerful country in the world. The horror of it all approaches Michael Moore proportions, slicing right to the heart of this uncivilized practice in a nation that claims to be the international Defender of Freedom. A perplexing, profoundly compelling film. :

The Life of David Gale opens Friday, Feb. 21. The Last Meal opens Friday, Feb. 21 at Ex-Centris and plays with French subtitles for one week only

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