The Life of David Gale is a movie about the last days of David Gale, an anti-death penalty activist and college philosophy professor sitting on death row for the rape and murder of a colleague.

For reasons that are never entirely clear, Gale (Kevin Spacey) grants three doomsday interviews to a young, energetic, principled reporter named Bitsey Bloom (Kate Winslet). Bitsey travels to Texas's death row to visit Gale in the last three full days of his life. Gale implies that framing a liberal activist for murder is the ultimate triumph, and dangles before Bitsey clues to unraveling his innocence.

He doesn't want her to get him off in a last-minute stay, but he does want her to keep his legacy alive and continue to research his case.

The movie is no Dead Man Walking, nor is it a clear liberal rant against capital punishment. It's a thriller/mystery that can be viewed as just that (with a few forced twists and plot holes), or it can be considered in the larger context of the debate over capital punishment in a death-happy state like Texas. It's a movie about human foibles and their cost to our families.

Laura Linney, Kevin Spacey and Kate Winslet deliver top-notch performances.