Just Mercy

Just Mercy - Warner Bors

It feels as if every year audiences are treated to a film just like Destin Daniel Cretton's Just Mercy, if it is not something like Best of Enemies, Green Book, Hidden Figures or The Blind Side. Just Mercy, while having an incredibly familiar narrative, does it right with a black lead for a black story and the result is a more than a terrific feature.

Even with an ensemble and strong cast —including the likes of Jamie Foxx, Brie Larson, Rafe Spall and Tim Blake Nelson — it is the talent and star performance of Micheal B. Jordan that shines through. Jordan puts forward a tremendous role in that of Lawyer Bryan Stevenson. The actor engulfs the screen with a formidable and dictating presence and when the film intensifies with antagonistic or heartfelt moments, Jordan nails such in his captivating emotional range. 

Just Mercy begins and ends with Jordan'sperformance, however. Even when Foxx impresses with the compelling material provided as Walter McMillian, his never given THAT scene to emotionally engulf the audience, unlike Rob Morgan as Herbert Richardson, who rivals something straight out of The Green Mile. Made slightly more infuriating is that Foxx's story arc of injustice and racial prejudice is as haunting and tragic as can be. 

Tim Blake Nelson has a few key sequences as antagonist Ralph Myers but before long, it becomes clear his role is simply a paperweight plot device without any bite or feist. Brie Larson, in her third outing in a Destin Daniel Cretton film after Short Term 12 and Glass Castle, is left to smolder as Eva Ansley in a wasted performance. A character that is redundant and flatlined so much that if the role were edited out completely, the viewer would not notice a thing. Larson’s character is only used as a reassurance to the audience to verbally quantify the drama that is unfolding and nothing much else. 

The camerawork is quite good, with a decent eye in the cinematography department from Brett Pawlak, who utilises a fabulous usage of close-ups to evoke a significant degree of dramatic intensity. Specifically noticed in the prison sequences, which feel daunting and claustrophobic. The dark and brooding colour palette also helps to intensify the story and the score, from composer Joel P. West, is a wonderful element. Just Mercy never does anything to push itself into the realm of genuinely captivating material, however, to get this real-life story of Walter McMillian out and into the open should and will be a testament in itself of an achievement in its own right.

Just Mercy is released January 17th 2020