‘David Gale’ predictable; ‘Pianist’ excels

Richard Brunette

‘The Life of David Gale’ sells itself short

Convicted of the rape and murder of his former colleague Constance

Harraway (Laura Linney), David Gale (Kevin Spacey) is on death row

and just four days shy of lethal injection in “The Life of David

Gale.”

In a last-ditch effort to clear his name -- if not save his life

-- he provides tough investigative reporter Bitsy Bloom (Kate

Winslet) an exclusive interview to explain the paradox he finds

himself in. The irony of the situation is not lost on the former

Austin University philosophy professor and leading death-penalty

abolitionist.

Through flashbacks during the interviews, Gale tells his story. We

meet the characters from his life on the outside and watch as that

life unravels. Clues to the mystery unfold as the past collides with

the present during Bitsy’s investigations. Will we learn who actually

killed Constance? Did Gale do it, or will he be saved and the real

killer revealed? The stakes rise and the tension mounts as the

minutes tick by and the remaining hours of Gale’s life slip away.

I like Spacey. I will see just about anything he does. From “The

Ref” to “Swimming with the Sharks” to “The Usual Suspects,” I’ve

always found his best characters, with their wry, acerbic wit and

smart dialogue, to be among my favorites. Like Jekyll and Hyde, even

within his most disagreeable characters, often there lies a

sensitive, caring human being, juxtaposed against the scornful,

caustic side.

“The Life of David Gale” is tailor made for him. Gale is

intelligent, sarcastic, self-assured, but too cocky, all exemplified

in a clever Cross Fire-style debate on the death penalty with the

fictional governor of Texas.

I also like Linney, though I tend to enjoy her smaller,

independent films. I liked the entire cast, with the exception of

Winslet. It’s not her performance that I feel was poor, I just found

her unconvincing as a hard-as-nails tabloid reporter. She’s fine as

Gale’s confidant, particularly as she begins to show empathy for him

and to believe he’s innocent. She was just miscast and out of place

in a role as a tough-reporter chick.

My other disappointment with this film was that I figured out the

ending long before it was over.

Director Alan Parker tells a good tale, but any avid filmgoer

knows that every scene and piece of dialogue sets up and provides

clues to a movie’s ending. If provided subtly, they should all come

together in an epiphany -- an “Ah, I get it now” -- at the end.

Parker provides too many unmistakable hints as to where the film is

taking us, and in doing so gives away the “surprise” ending.

Rated R for disturbing scenes, violent images, nudity and

language, on my rating scale of “Pay Full Price,” “Bargain Matinee,”

“Video Rental” or “Wait for Cable,” I give it a Bargain Matinee.

After all, it’s a decent film, but I’d have much rather watched

“The Usual Suspects” again instead of “David Gale.” I know the ending

to both, but “Suspects” was so much more intriguing, and the “Ah ha”

far more surprising.

* RICHARD BRUNETTE is a recreation supervisor for the city of

Costa Mesa and a Costa Mesa resident.

Polansky conducts masterpiece with ‘Pianist’

“The Pianist” is another Roman Polansky masterpiece. It commands

your empathy, absorbs your attention and enlarges your

humanitarianism. You’ll also enjoy it and be glad you went to see it.

Adrian Brody, as the hero, pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, gives a

sustained, deliberate, tightly controlled and ultimately fascinating

performance of this Jewish resident of Warsaw at the time when the

Nazis ran roughshod over Poland and decimated the ghettos.

Wladyslaw is a member of a well-to-do Jewish family; he is already

widely known and appreciated as a talented artist with his own radio

show. Undoubtedly, he is headed for bigger things, but the Nazis

arrive.

As depicted by Polansky -- who co-wrote the script with Ronald

Harwood (and a fine job they did) based on the pianist’s

autobiography -- part of the horror for the viewer is the casualness

of the German barbarity.

Almost all had suspended their humanity and didn’t even seem to

realize it. There were some notable exceptions. One man, a German

guard who knows of the pianist and respects him and his talent,

separates him from his family as all of them were being loaded on a

train like cattle for the trip to the detention (death) camps, and

turned away as Wladyslaw headed back to the now deserted ghetto.

And in a beautiful sequence in the latter part of the film, SS

Capt. Wilm Hosenfeld (Thomas Kretsmann, in a fine bit; look for him

in the future) who finds the pianist in his hideaway and induced him

to play (gorgeously), conveys his emotional bonding eloquently but

soundlessly, then quietly leaves after giving his overcoat to the

pianist.

It is obvious that his passion for and dedication to music is what

keeps him going and inspires others to help him, such as a young

Caucasian couple and another young woman, also Caucasian. He also

benefits by help from the underground.

Polansky very wisely kept his focus on Warsaw’s ghetto, using this

minimum loci to make anti-Nazi charges -- by showing, not telling --

as strong as other classic World War II films have done in other

ways. It’s a beautiful film, well worth seeing, even though

horrifying at times. Polansky’s concern is with the individual -- the

pianist, who is, to the director, symbolic of the Warsaw Jews -- and

how he managed to persevere and survive in a world gone mad.

Szpilman survived, returned to radio as a brilliant and popular

pianist, wrote the story of those dreadful years and died in 2000.

Worth mentioning among the cast is Wladyslaw’s father and mother

-- veteran movie supporting actors Frank Finley and Maureen Lipman.

The entire cast is good, and the production team outstanding. They

include cinematographer Power Edelman and editor Herve De Luge.

Though it’s mostly a superb editing job, there were a few brief times

when De Luge could have tightened a scene or sequence by a few frames

here and a few frames there. By the end, however, the pacing was back

to being excellent.

The film ends as Wladyslaw plays a magnificent concerto to its

final phrase. By design, it also plays, with fine visuals, over the

end credits. To my regret in their behalf, many patrons left. Don’t

do it. The music at the close is almost worth the price of admission

on its own.

Polanski has been nominated as Best Director for an Academy Award

and has already garnered honors from American and foreign critics,

film festivals and similar major organizations. He was a nominee for

the director’s honor by the Director’s Guild of America, but did not

win this particular kudo. Whether he is accorded the Academy Award

over some powerful, talented colleagues, he has made an artistically

and cinematically classic movie.

* ELEANORE HUMPHREY lives in Costa Mesa and is a political junkie

involved with several city committees.