#justmercy

You practically go into Just Mercy knowing you’ll like it. A young, idealistic black lawyer choosing to set up a practice in Alabama to fight for the wrongfully convicted? You're guaranteed powerful emotions as our protagonist faces off against a corrupt, racist system and since they hardly ever make movies about people who fail… you’ll get a good serving of righteous anger before the conclusion replaces your outrage with joy. Certain aspects of Just Mercy are formulaic but this real-life story is shining a light on an important issue so you won't mind.

In 1986, Alabama, Walter McMillan (Jamie Foxx) is wrongfully arrested for the murder of a white woman, put on trial and swiftly condemned to death. Hope fades until attorney Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan), an attorney committed to fighting for those placed on death row unjustly, takes a look at the case.

Multiple pictures could be made about Bryan Stevenson's exploits but director Destin Daniel Cretton (who co-wrote the screenplay with Andrew Lanham) focusses primarily on a single case with a couple of side stories to give you an idea of how big the problem he's tackling is. The film seeks to honor Stevenson, which is perhaps why the character comes off as a bit one-dimensional. It would've been nice to see a little bit more of him in his downtime to understand what he does when he isn’t practicing. You get that with Jamie Foxx’s portrayal of Walter McMillian. He’s a victim but is neither simple nor perfect. Death row has drained all hope from him, making the first opponent Stevenson has to defeat the very man he seeks to save.

The supporting cast is also strong, with Brie Larson and Timothy Blake Nelson standing out. In the obligatory "real-person epilogue", you see what the real-life Ralph Myers looked like and Nelson got him down to a tee. Larson? She doesn’t have that big of a part but her scenes pack a punch.

The enjoyment you get from a story like this is measured by how close to your boiling point it brings you. No one likes to hear about the state-sanctioned murder of innocents but in a safe environment like this one, you relish in mentally writing down the names of the judge, the sheriff, the DA, etc. who allowed the injustice we see to take place just in case you happen to bump into them one day - they better pray you don't. The story deals with racism but it's more complicated than just "these people good, these people bad". There are obvious villains but there are shades of gray too. Particularly with the side stories, the answers aren't clear-cut.

Just Mercy sits somewhere between a truly life-altering experience and a crowd-pleaser. Much could be said about the death penalty but by keeping its focus on Bryan Stevenson's work and his environment, you come to your own conclusions. You'll be moved, you'll enjoy yourself. (Theatrical version on the big screen, January 8, 2020)