 |
| DIRECTED BY |
| Alan Parker
|
| STARRING |
| Kate Winslet |
| Gabriel Mann |
| Kevin Spacey |
| Matt Craven |
| Laura Linney |
 |
Warning: Spoiler in Final Paragraph
First of all, normal people don�t talk this quickly. There�s no way that even two angry and intellectual journalists speak at the sheer speed that Kate Winslet and Gabriel Mann rattle off their lines to each other � it�s as if they were just trying to get out of this movie as soon as possible. As for the actual movie � within its first act it interchanges between a mindboggling array of different time periods within its characters life so much that I couldn�t really figure out whether or not this was before or after Gale�s imprisonment. And once the film finally begins to find a focus and take its anti-death penalty stance, one quickly realizes how little sense much of the film�s plot makes.
Kevin Spacey over-acts like a madman here � witness the painfully phony scene where he tries to talk to his kid on the phone. He just seems totally artificial even when his character isn�t trying to be Machiavellian. Laura Linney is also amazingly annoying in her role and the scenes detailing her sudden romantic subplot with Spacey are pretty laughable.
It�s not as if Gale and friends couldn�t have just released the video themselves afterwards � so what�s the purpose of these journalists? Throughout the whole film Gale seems to be more preoccupied with acting like a drunk and having sex than martyring himself for an important cause. And we�re also never convincingly explained why these police were stupid enough to make a false conviction in the first place.
