Just Mercy

There have been a lot of movies almost exactly like Just Mercy.  Legal dramas like these are a dime a dozen in Hollywood.  But, filmmakers love them, because they're usually effective and inspiring stories.  Such is the case here.  Even though I felt like I had seen it before, I was still invested, thanks mostly to the strong leads of Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx.  Sometimes it's not the story being told that draws me in, but rather the way it's being told, or who is telling it.

The film tells the true story of lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Jordan), who was a fresh-faced kid just out of Harvard Law when he decided to start his own practice in 1989 to help people who were wrongfully placed on Death Row due to unfair trials or poor law representation during their original hearings.  Stevenson could have chosen to practice law anywhere, but after an encounter he has with a prison inmate while was was an intern, he decides to focus his work on Monroe County, Alabama.  The movie does a good job of showing the uncomfortable and sometimes downright despicable treatment he gets being a young black kid in an area that prides itself on its history with To Kill a Mockingbird, but still holds a strong sense of unjust against the black and the poor.  There are moments of bigotry in the film (the most powerful and angering being when Stevenson has to be subjected to a strip search the first time he shows up in prison to interview a potential client), but it is wise not to play this card too much, and become heavy-handed or preachy.

Instead, the film focuses on one of his first clients, Walter McMillian (Foxx), who is also known as Johnny D.  Walter was a small time lumber company owner who was pulled over by the police one night while driving home for a crime he says he didn't commit.  The crime was the murder of a white 18-year-old girl who was found dead at a dry cleaners.  The town wanted justice for the murder, and in its pursuit, nobody seemed to question that the evidence at Walter's trial was flimsy at best, as well as downright unreliable.  He was still found guilty, and now sits on Death Row.  Walter is naturally skeptical about Bryan's offer to reopen his case.  After all, the last lawyer he had wasn't too on the ball.  But, Bryan makes a concerned effort, talking to Walter's family and community about the events of the night in question when the murder occurred, and gathering evidence that pokes holes in the original testimony that convicted him.

Just Mercy successfully avoids some traps that similar films make.  There's very little local color to distract us, and there aren't a lot of scenes of racist cops glaring at our heroes while ominous music drones on.  Instead, director and co-writer Destin Daniel Cretton (adapting the script from Stevenson's own memoirs) puts all our attention on the case itself, and how the evidence provided at the original trial just doesn't seem to add up.  The film moves at a brisk pace, as Stevenson is literally racing against a system that seems to be against the very idea that someone on Death Row deserves a second chance at a trial.  It's compelling to watch him gather evidence, and speak to people like Ralph Myers (Tim Blake Nelson), a convict whose confession initially lead to Walter being put behind bars in the first place.  The movie also does a good job in finding the humanity in its characters, such as Ralph, who easily could have come across as a villain, but this film allows Nelson to bring some sympathy to the role.  There's also a good side role for Brie Larson as Eva, one of the few people who believes in Bryan's cause from the beginning, and even lets him use her home for an office.

But what I admired the most is how it never ignores the fact that its two leads are flawed individuals.  Jordan's Bryan seems barely able to hold back his anger or contempt at times when things don't work out, while Foxx's Walter is a flawed man who has hurt his wife emotionally in the past, and is surprised she is standing by him while all this is going on.  For once, we have a docudrama that doesn't make its subject out to be a saint.  There are also some very strong supporting roles here, such as another one of Bryan's early clients on Death Row, Herb Richardson (a fantastic and heart-breaking Rob Morgan).  He was a Vietnam veteran with PTSD who is set to die because he built a bomb that wound up killing a woman.  Even though he's not the main focus, his story and ultimate outcome is some of the more emotional aspects of the film, and you're glad that his story was included as well.

Just Mercy may be familiar, but it holds undeniable power thanks to its performances and a script that wisely doesn't follow past docudramas to the letter.  It makes a lot of smart decisions, which only made me more willing to follow where it was going.  I may have felt like I had seen it before, but I was glad to be watching it done this well.

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