THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE (2003)

Kevin Spacey plays a defrocked college professor accused of raping and killing a fellow anti-death-penalty advocate, who has three days left before his scheduled execution. While the central argument -- that an unacknowledged percentage of death-row inmates are innocent -- is compelling, the film is a self-righteous mishmash that can't decide whether to be a tribute to the fanatical leftist passion that thrives in college towns, an indictment of that very same fanaticism, or a ghoulishly didactic snuff-video thriller.