This solid if predictable courtroom drama is elevated by a terrific cast
and impassioned subject matter. Just Mercy stars Michael B. Jordan
as Bryan Stevenson, a newly degreed lawyer fresh out of Harvard Law in
1989, who moves to Monroeville, Ala., to found the Equal Justice Initiative
and provide pro bono legal representation to death row inmates in a state
where no prisoners had ever been freed from that sentence. It’s a true-life
story based on Stevenson’s book and focuses on one of the first cases the
new lawyer brought to trial, that of Walter McMillian (played by Jamie Foxx,
who delivers some of his best work since Ray).
McMillian, widely known as Johnnie D, was a Black man who was wrongly
convicted of murdering a young white woman. With no evidence and false
testimonies, the case against McMillian was flimsy at best. But that proved no obstacle in the racist Southern climate in which he was tried. (In a wry nod to the racism that lingers, the self-satisfied white citizens in Monroeville are always quick to point out to Stevenson that theirs was the town where
Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird – as if that absolved them
from any possibility of bigotry and racial injustice.) McMillian’s plight is
amplified by that of two other inmates: Herbert Richardson (Morgan,
who is phenomenal), a veteran whose PTSD triggered the murder he
committed, and Anthony Ray Hinton (Jackson Jr.), another wrongly
convicted death row inmate. Brie Larson (who starred in director Destin
Daniel Cretton’s breakthrough movie Short Term 12), is underused
here as the local cohort who helps Stevenson get the Equal Justice Initiative
up and running in a town where no building owner is willing to rent them
space.
Cretton’s filmmaking technique is straightforward, but his lack of frills
allows the viewer to soak in the emotions of every situation. A Black man
himself, Stevenson is also a frequent victim of the region’s tacit and overt
racism. Yet the film’s sense of injustice is so strong and colorblind, that any
viewer will be challenged to shake off the feeling of “it could’ve been me.”
Death row is pictured as merely a more technologically sophisticated way of
lynching a Black man. Still, the film goes through its process of filing briefs,
interviewing witnesses, and jailhouse visits. There’s little that hasn’t been
seen before in legal procedurals, yet Just Mercy scores as an
emotionally righteous ride. (And as a meta-film side note: What a kick it is to
see Erik Killmonger and Captain Marvel joining forces to battle
American racial injustice.)
This article appears in January 10 • 2020.
