I hadn't seen this movie in maybe close to 15 years and I don't know how it popped into my mind recently but I'm glad it did as I've always enjoyed this. I can't remember if I saw it for the first time in the theaters or on DVD but it still retains its watchability. A smart, breadcrumb of a story involving capital punishment abolitionist David Gale (Kevin Spacer) being convicted of raping and murdering his fellow activist Constance Harraway (Laura Linney). One nice surprise that I caught this time around was a young Melissa McCarthy, playing Nico the goth girl, who lives in the house where the crime was committed and opens it up to the public as a sort of shrine/museum. One piece of the story that got on my nerves was geography: the prison's in Huntsville, TX and reporter Bitsey Bloom (Kate Winslet) and intern Zack Stemmons (Gabriel Mann) always refer to driving to Austin like it's down the road whereas Houston is a ways away. Newsflash: Austin is 3 hours from Huntsville while Houston is only an hour. I'm assuming the writer did this on purpose because it helped the story better; otherwise, he needed to get a map. A gem of a film that didn't get much notice upon it's release (at least that's my opinion anyway). 7/10
