ACQUITTAL OF OPINION STARS OF 'THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE' SET DEATH-PENALTY POLITICS ASIDE TO CONCENTRATE ON MAKING A GOOD THRILLER.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

When is a movie about the death penalty not about the death penalty? Is it when somebody in the marketing department decides that more tickets will be sold if it's pitched primarily as a thriller?

Either that, or the three very fine actors who star in ``The Life of David Gale'' - Kevin Spacey, Kate Winslet and Laura Linney - found so much else about their characters intriguing that the issues the film raises seemed genuinely secondary.

As they say down in Texas, whose active Death Row much of the film revolves around, you be the judge.

``Let's take it on the face of it,'' says two-time Academy Award winner Spacey, who plays the title role of an anti-death penalty college professor who is convicted of murdering a colleague. ``It's a movie, it's not real life. And while it does have this issue in it, I hope the issue doesn't outweigh the entertainment value of what we hope is a pretty good thriller. I think if people refer to it as 'the death penalty movie,' it does a disservice to the picture we've tried to make.''

Acclaimed stage, film (``The Truman Show,'' ``You Can Count on Me'') and Emmy-winning (Showtime's ``Wild Iris'') actress Linney echoes Spacey's just-a-movie comment about ``Gale,'' which was reportedly made from the first draft of the first sold screenplay by philosophy professor Charles Randolph. She also acknowledges that whatever interest she has in the controversial subject matter was not a major reason for signing on to the project.

``To be honest with you, very, very little,'' Linney, who plays Gale's fellow academic and anti-execution activist, says of the death penalty theme factor. ``That's not something I'm necessarily proud of, or ashamed by either, for that matter. It's just that the part was so interesting. And the people are interesting. For me, it's not so much about the cause; it's how the cause affects people's lives and what it is to be saturated by that type of passionate commitment. It's just a fascinating world to go into.''

As for Winslet, who plays a hard-charging journalist trying to suss out the truth about the murder days before Gale's scheduled execution, there's nothing like dodging a worrisome question with her customary bluntness.

``I'm just so nervous to even talk about this, to be honest, because it's such a fine-line subject,'' the English ``Titanic'' actress admits. ``I decided that my own personal feelings toward the death penalty, I'm not going to discuss. Just because it's private, I'm not prepared to, and I don't think that it has, actually, any bearing on what the film is about. The point about this film that I keep finding myself stressing is that, in actual fact, I don't think it really forces you to form an opinion either way. If it does put across any kind of message, it's pretty muddled, really. The movie, to me, is really a thriller. The political aspects of it are simply undertones and provide a backdrop for this story.''

Not a diatribe 

This approach is par for the course for director Alan Parker, whose sporadic forays into political cinema (``Midnight Express,'' ``Mississippi Burning,'' ``Come See the Paradise,'' ``Evita'') have couched their points in suspense, romance or musical film genre conventions.

``If it had been a political diatribe, you wouldn't get to the audience; you're going to bore them very quickly and they might not listen at all,'' says the British filmmaker, a death penalty opponent whose other works include ``Fame,'' ``Angela's Ashes'' and ``The Commitments.'' ``So the thriller part of this film is the locomotive that drags the political point behind it, really.''

But what, exactly, is that point? Unlike ``Dead Man Walking,'' a film made by an identifiably liberal director (Tim Robbins) that made no bones about either its subject or sympathies, yet tried to fairly cover the divisive issue of state executions from all perspectives, ``Gale'' offers up a convoluted puzzle to be solved. More than one, actually; while Winslet's magazine reporter Bitsey Bloom strives to prove Gale innocent as the clock ticks, flashbacks narrated by the convict involve us deeply in his and Constance Harraway's (Linney) lives before death demolished them.

Yet, at an early stage, the crusading Gale is revealed to be a man of many weaknesses, among them overweening pride, alcoholism and low resistance to opportunities for infidelity.

In other words, not the most pristine point man for a moral campaign against a popular, if questionable, government policy.

``Is he supposed to be a poster boy?'' Spacey asks rhetorically. ``I always laugh when people say to me, 'So, you seem to like to play characters with flaws.' I think to myself, what else is there? I don't see anything else. Ultimately, I don't worry too much about that. You have to be able to play a character without making judgments about it, and you have to be able to play a character for all their strengths and all their weaknesses and let the chips fall where they may. Audiences are going to come up with their own reaction, and it won't be universal.

``In fact, I have to say that, if this movie has any kind of message, it is decidedly messy and unclear. I will be curious to see how people both write stories about the movie and review the movie based on their own personal opinions of the issue.''

Especially when the principals won't share theirs.

``You may ask away,'' Linney laughs when pitched the Issue Question. ``And you know what? At the next interview, I will be more than happy to blab what I think about the death penalty to you at the top of my lungs. The reason why is because if I tell you what I believe and someone reads it, it's just gonna go in the back of their mind, in the Rolodex of information that they keep. And if they go see the movie, at one point during the film, it will flash through their mind what I think, and that just has no place. I want them thinking about what she thinks, not what I think.''

Withholding judgment

Of the three, Spacey is most forthcoming on the divisive subject. But then, his feelings are so evenly balanced, he doesn't have to worry about turning off potential ticket buyers.

``I didn't really have a position on the issue when I started the movie,'' he says. ``I've certainly read a lot. I had the opportunity, years ago, to play (legendary defense lawyer) Clarence Darrow, who certainly had some of the most eloquent words you could ever hope to hear on the idea of stopping the state from killing. But, at the same time, I've never had my sister murdered, so how the hell am I supposed to know what that feels like? I think that one has to pay attention to both sides of an issue like this that seems to polarize people so terribly.''

That speaks to the major thing all three stars will admit they took away from the ``Gale'' effort: a better understanding of the specifics behind the debate.

``Of course, in preparing for it, I had to read up a lot about the system and so forth,'' notes Winslet, who comes from a culture in which capital punishment is not practiced. ``I had to read some stuff that, frankly, I didn't like reading. When research materials are giving you information about prisoners' last meals, that's not nice. In fact, I got halfway through a lot of the material and I just had to stop reading it because it's very, very depressing just to know those things. So I ended up focusing much more on just the journalism side and creating who Bitsey really was.''

``I learned a lot,'' Linney admits. ``And it really illuminated for me the fact that a lot of my political beliefs are, with certain issues, emotionally based. They're an instinctive response to something. And I realized how uneducated I am about most issues. When you do do the research and you realize how much information there is about things and you've never taken the time to look at it, it's a little startling. And that's not to say that an emotional response is invalid, but it's not necessarily an educated response.''

Of course, movies are sold as emotional experiences. And whatever may be off-putting about the ``The Life of David Gale's'' subject matter or partisan sympathies, how it involves audiences' hearts more than their minds will, rightly or wrongly, determine the film's success.

``I thought the part was enormously inviting and the journey that he goes on was a wild ride,'' Spacey avers. ``But I also think that, if you look at Alan's work, any time he has a film that has some kind of political center or social injustice as the issue it's grappling with, he always manages to make the politics subversive to the emotional lives of the characters. So you end up following a very personal story, rather than a polemic or a banner waving in your face.''

After 'Life'

After making the harrowing capital punishment drama ``The Life of David Gale,'' its three principal actors deserved some kind of reprieve. Here's what they're doing next.

LAURA LINNEY

She's reteamed with director Clint Eastwood (``Absolute Power'') for the murder mystery ``Mystic River,'' in which she plays Sean Penn's wife; she's also made the multipart British romantic comedy ``Love Actually'' with Brazilian heartthrob Rodrigo Santoro (``He's from the planet of Handsome,'' Linney reports). Both films will be released in the fall.

Next up is a movie about pioneering sex researchers the Kinseys with Liam Neeson, her co-star in the acclaimed recent Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's ``The Crucible.'' ``Now we're playing husband and wife again, and it's really sort of hysterical that this is the reincarnation of that Puritan couple,'' she notes.

KEVIN SPACEY

The ``American Beauty'' and ``Usual Suspects'' star plans to continue a year-plus hiatus from headlining movies while developing films and plays through his Trigger Street Productions company (named for the location of his childhood home in Chatsworth). Spacey is also behind TriggerStreet.com, an interactive Web site where thousands of aspiring filmmakers and screenwriters post their work for peer review and perusal by industry professionals.

But perhaps the biggest venture on Spacey's plate is London's venerable Old Vic Theatre, for which he's just been named artistic director. ``I think it's going to be easy,'' Spacey says of the time-consuming appointment. ``There's this misconception about how many movies a person does in a year; I mean, I'm lucky if I get one movie a year that's worth doing. So, if I'm going to run a theater for six or so months, then I'll make a movie when I'm done with that season.

``I don't see in any way, shape or form that it's going to affect my film career. And I hope to use what's happened in my film career as a magnet for actors and playwrights and designers and audiences to come on down, 'cause there's gonna be some fun stuff happening.''

KATE WINSLET

She has ``Neverland,'' the biography of ``Peter Pan'' author J.M. Barrie, coming out this summer. She's currently making ``Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,'' a romantic comedy involving memory loss written by ``Adaptation's'' Charlie Kaufman and co-starring Jim Carrey.

But, obviously, she's not out to match the success of ``Titanic,'' the most popular movie ever made.

``To be honest, I've just continued in the same vein which I always have done,'' the 27-year-old English actress says. ``Which is that I've only really done things which I've absolutely, passionately believed in. When I read 'Titanic,' I fell passionately in love with it. That it became the most successful movie ever made was just a freak thing - I didn't see that coming.

``But after that, I just carried on the same old way. I'd be lying if I said that career opportunity didn't go through the roof. But actually, it would've been stupid for me to go out and try to top 'Titanic.' Who would want to do that?''

CAPTION(S):

8 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- 3 -- cover -- color) `DAVID GALE'

Kate Winslet, Laura Linney and Kevin Spacey bring a Death Row dilemma to life

(4) Kevin Spacey and Laura Linney play opponents of capital punishment in ``The Life of David Gale.'' Says Spacey, ``I hope the issue doesn't outweigh the entertainment value.''

(5) Kate Winslet (with Gabriel Mann), who portrays reporter Bitsey Bloom, has kept mum on her personal feelings about the death penalty.

(6) LAURA LINNEY

(7) KEVIN SPACEY

(8) KATE WINSLET

Box:

After `Life' (see text)