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Glenn Lovell, San Jose Mercury News: Instead of mounting a fierce argument against socially sanctioned killing, Parker gives the other side ammunition and allows those predisposed to executions to exit feeling smug and reassured in their beliefs. Read more
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: A snide, juvenile, plot-twisting story about capital punishment that should provoke activists truly concerned about the death penalty to rage, and guilty-pleasure seekers to lament that the movie fails even as decent trash. Read more
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Almost unbearably sanctimonious -- not to mention preposterous. Read more
Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: It's fine, even admirable, to make movies with a definite point of view but not if heavy-handed opinion overwhelms the entertainment. Read more
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: A dazzling mess. Read more
Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: This is a movie that rivets the attention and stirs our emotions before collapsing into wild, unconvincing melodrama. Read more
Elvis Mitchell, New York Times: David Gale may be the first liberal-leaning movie that could be brought up on assault charges since its director, Alan Parker, made Midnight Express. Read more
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Yes, it is a polemic of sorts, but it can be pretty entertaining, thanks to the actors. Read more
Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times: Parker's tendency to smash through stories ends up being brutal on Spacey and Winslet. Read more
Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: The script constantly trips over small points. Read more
Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: Parker and screenwriter Charles Randolph throw plausibility to the wind at every turn, and every emotional moment feels contrived. Read more
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Wherever you stand on the death penalty, there ought to be a law against a message movie this contrived. Read more
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: The very things that give the picture its entertainment value -- the suspenseful contrivances of the story -- are precisely what undermine its ostensible message. Read more
Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: Overwrought and over-directed, The Life of David Gale has ideas worth considering, but its largest group of advocates will be the already converted. Read more
John Powers, L.A. Weekly: Although I've never before seen Winslet flounder like this, it's Spacey who really needs help -- his desire to be St. Kevin is turning him into a joke. Read more
Jan Stuart, Newsday: A movie that at first glance seems to be using the mystery/suspense genre as a lure for a serious discussion of the death penalty, but turns out to be merely exploiting capital punishment arguments for easy goosebumps. Read more
Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: Low thrills and high dudgeon are a bad mix. Read more
Rex Reed, New York Observer: Grading on the curve, I give it high marks for trying something different, but somewhat lower ones for entertainment value. Read more
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: I ended up feeling sorry for Mr. Spacey, Ms. Winslet and Ms. Linney, so contrived was the foolishness in which they found themselves embroiled. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The picture is neither flawless nor foolproof, but it's smart and tight enough to keep audiences off-balance and entertained for the running length. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: I am sure the filmmakers believe their film is against the death penalty. I believe it supports it and hopes to discredit the opponents of the penalty as unprincipled fraudsters. Read more
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Does Kevin Spacey have a weird secret? Um, yeah, as always. But this death-penalty fable is so overwrought, no one will care. Read more
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: By the end, it reveals itself as too pat, too absurd and -- as a polemic against capital punishment -- philosophically self- defeating. Read more
David Edelstein, Slate: It would take an intellect far superior to mine to explain the rationale -- or, for that matter, the release -- of David Gale. Read more
Susan Walker, Toronto Star: One to add to the list of recent films not worthy of Spacey's talents. Read more
Claudia Puig, USA Today: Parker uses the same overbearing touch in David Gale that he did in Angela's Ashes and Mississippi Burning. Read more
Dennis Lim, Village Voice: Going through the motions of a liberal-Hollywood polemic with the sweaty, mounting hysteria of a bad liar, The Life of David Gale is foremost an overheating gotcha machine. Read more