Alan Parker is a master of emotions. My emotions. He knows exactly which moods he would like to transfer on his audience and which charming abilities he must use to keep it on a very short leash. Whether stirring, confusing, suspenseful, or rebellion: In an Alan Parker movie those are reactions to perfectly planned stimuli. So when The Life of David Gale begins with a breathless Kate Winslet running across the screen we are automatically there, running with her. And we know this is a race against time, a race with life and death, and good and evil.

For Alan Parker (Midnight Express, Mississippi Burning) is simultaneously a moralist. A conservative moralist with a smart head, who knows how to use the keys masterly and uses them, in order to handle hot political topics. This time it concerns the death penalty: David Gale (Kevin Spacey), university instructor and death penalty opponent, losing a TV debate with the governor of Texas. He sweeps Gales' theory from the table with the single question about one wrongful death penalty execution -- and Gale has to pass. Shortly thereafter, he sits on death row because he's been accused of raping and murdering a fellow activist, Constance (Laura Linney). He asks the star reporter Bitsey Bloom (Winslet) to prove his innocence. Until the execution, she and her assistant (Gabriel Mann), have only four days time.

In a lengthy essay, the British director reveals why he opposes the death penalty and mentions that US President Geroge W. Bush, while governor of Texas, was responsible for 146 executions. Parker's film tells another story. Okay, you should never reveal the end of a thriller, but this must be said: death penalty opponents, as suggested by Parker, are fanatics who would go over dead bodies. Bad boy, this Gale.

Parker builds (with the script by Charles Randolph) a case and characters who have something to prove. The weight of evidence is crushing - the lively Kevin Spacey, the energetic Kate Winslet are held prisoner by their very defined roles. Those who decript Parkers movie language are frightened. Over the pictures of dirty Mexican children playing in the mud. Over the pictures of sex which have a catastrophic turn every time. Pictures are no argument. Those who reduce them to such would remove their visionary power. All that's left is resentment.

by Chrstiane Peltz

Showing today at 12:30 and 19:30 at the Berlinale-Palast and tomorrow at 9:30 and 23:30 at the Royal Palast, and at 20:00 at International.

Translation from German by Ruth and z. Original Format.