Just Mercy
When Bryan Stevenson first makes his way down to Monroeville, Alabama in 1988, he is almost inundated with frequent references to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, and even is told to visit the courthouse where Atticus Finch stood, as it is a Civil Rights landmark. Bare in mind, the person telling him this did not say Gregory Peck playing Atticus Finch in the Oscar-winning 1962 film, but just, Atticus Finch. It’s enough to make one sigh, if this is what stands as Civil Rights history in this Alabama town in 1988.
Destin Daniel Cretton’s “Just Mercy” is a film very much cut from the same cloth as the movie based on Harper Lee’s beloved, iconic book, but thankfully, this one is about a real Civil Rights icon. In 1988, Stevenson was just starting out as a defense attorney out of Harvard, whom is working with people who are on Death Row, trying to get them off of Death Row, whether that means released, or their sentences taken down to life sentences. The events in this film, adapted from Stevenson’s memoir, show the beginning of the Equal Justice Initiative, with him taking on cases like that of Walter McMillian’s, whom was accused of murdering a white woman in Monroeville in 1986, and later sentenced to die. Stevenson finds severe flaws with the prosecution’s case against McMillian, and tries to do what he can to get McMillian’s sentence commuted, and, eventually, all charges dropped.
Cretton’s film is as earnest as the original “Mockingbird” movie, but not as naive about the issue of racism. Thankfully, it also remains focused on the work by Stevenson, played with compassion and intelligence by Michael B. Jordan, even though Eva Ansley, a white activist who works with Stevenson, and is played by Brie Larson, is right there to be this film’s “white savior” role. That isn’t the truth of the story, though; it’s Stevenson’s film, and Jordan gives an understated, strong performance here, with Larson in genuine support. A big part of the film’s arc for Stevenson involves his sense of privilege he thinks he’s earned as a lawyer get stripped away by the bigotry he faces from the authorities in this Alabama town, and it helps bring him closer to the perspective of McMillian, played by Jamie Foxx is a role that is, like Jordan’s, understated, but capable of showing vulnerability. He has no illusions as to what he’s facing, and he doubts Stevenson’s ability to navigate the same, biased system that has him awaiting death. When his case is eventually dismissed years later, the emotion he feels in that moment is palpable. Cretton cannot get past courtroom drama formula, a lot of the time, but “Just Mercy” is going for the heartstrings, not reinventing the wheel of this genre. On that level, it’s a thoughtful, emotional success.
