Directing: B
Acting: B+
Writing: B
Cinematography: B
Editing: B+

Just Mercy is an inspiring story that feels very much like the movie version of that story, “based on” the truth but sprinkled with contrivances to make it work as a story told over the course of a couple of hours. Within those confines, though, it works quite well. The average movie-goer with an interest in movies of this sort will quite like it.

More than once I found myself thinking of the 1995 film Dead Man Walking, which was even more pointed in its anti-death penalty message—and had also been based on a true story. And although that story was about a specific case, the implications were still about the broad morality of capital punishment without sociopolitical context. That context is what Just Mercy provides, shifting the setting to Monroe County, Alabama, and highlighting the systemic racism that led to the wrongful murder conviction of Walter McMillian.

Just Mercy includes this statistic in the midst of much information about its characters just before the end credits, but it bears mentioning here: for every 9 death row executions in the U.S., one person on death row has been exonerated—”a shocking rate of error.” Indeed. And this movie uses McMillian to put a face on how senseless capital punishment is. Even for those who believe in its effectiveness in theory have to admit our system is not equipped to implement it efficiently.

I happen to believe capital punishment is morally wrong whether the person is guilty or not, but that’s a conversation for another space—although Just Mercy makes pretty clear it has the same message: when McMillian’s death row neighbor, who suffers from PTSD and should actually be in a hospital, feels genuine guilt for a woman who did die because of him, McMillion tells him that doesn’t give anyone the right to do the same to him.

This is all not to say that Just Mercy is particularly heavy handed about its messaging; it really is not, and makes for a compelling story on its own merits. The cast is top notch, with memorable performances by Jamie Foxx as Walter McMillian; Michael B. Jordan as Byran Stevenson, the idealistic lawyer trying to help; and Brie Larson all but disappears into the part as Eva Ansley, the Operations Director of the Equal Justice Initiative she co-founded with Stevenson. We’re also treated to the dependable Tim Blake Nelson as a key witness who also happens to be a convicted felon.

Ansley is handled well in the film, but I have more mixed feelings about a couple of the other white characters, who have a kind of “moral awakening” by the end of the story, including a prison guard, as well as the Monroe County District Attorney. To be fair, the latter character may have changed his mind only when he realized he could no longer win this fight. But the prison guard feels a little like a character thrown in to make white people feel better about all the widespread racism and bigotry, a thread of redemption that likely was not so easily found in the real struggle of proving McMillian’s innocence.

And of course, the story beats are familiar, with the requisite, climactic rousing speech in a courtroom near the end. At least the gathered crowd didn’t erupt into applause. More realistically, the gathered community breathes a collective cry of relief when they finally get what has been fought for in the face of insane obstacles spanning several years.

It should come as no surprise and is thus not a spoiler to say Just Mercy has a happy ending. But boy, was it a difficult road to get there. And that road includes the execution of one of McMillian’s fellow inmates after a request for a stay is denied. The inclusion of this scene, which is very difficult to watch and maybe the most heartbreaking in the film, is necessary. It only becomes easy to tolerate the inhumane when the practice has no human face associated with it. Just Mercy is a tale of persistence and resilience, a textbook case of overcoming adversity. Its telling may be patently conventional, but that in no way diminishes its impact.

*He got by with a lot of help from a friend.*

Overall: B+