Friday, January 10, 2020

Great cast can't prop up portentous Just Mercy

Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx in Just Mercy. Image courtesy Warner Bros.
One of the worst things a film can try to be is powerful. Films can convey a lot of weight and impact on the viewer through acting, writing, and message because the filmmakers driving it have something of import to say. But a powerful film should be naturally so, delivering messages of great import through the craft. For films like Just Mercy, the attempt at gravitas comes across as trying too hard and results in a film that is more didactic than memorable.

Like most films of its ilk, Just Mercy is based on the true story of Bryan Stevenson (played by Michael B. Jordan), an idealistic Harvard attorney who dedicates his life to helping prisoners in need. Assisted by the tenacious Eva Ansley (Brie Larson), Stevenson picks up the case of inmate Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx), who is on death row solely due to the testimony of erratic witness Ralph Myers (Tim Blake Nelson). Stevenson spends years fighting against a corrupt system spearheaded by a spineless DA (Rafe Spall) to save McMillian from state-instituted death.

Just Mercy never lives up to the sum of its parts. The talent is there and Jordan, Fox, Larson, and Nelson all do good work in their respective roles. Stevenson's story is almost too perfect to craft a fine courtroom drama reminiscent of The Verdict. Yet the film doesn't dive into the material with nuance or an eye for dissecting the depth of the issues that cause a Walter McMillian to be put on death row with little evidence. Just Mercy thrives above the surface, giving the audience something to feel good about without challenging preconceived notions. Everything about the film is too easy and too direct; the line between evil men and the good folks contains no room for grey. The audience isn't granted room to consider the roots of the racism that drives the villains or the virtue of its central character, and without that room for ambiguity the film lacks the teeth it needs.

The actual horror about what happened to McMillian happens in the procedures director Destin Daniel Cretton and his co-writer Andrew Lanham don't choose to explore. Institutional racism is dangerous because it his hidden within minutiae constituting the law. Racists are terrible people worthy of condemnation, but they get away with their racism because the law both protects and supports their view. Just Mercy focuses on the individuals with barely a glance at the system that enables them. Viewers should be bothered by this topic because of its subtlety and how easily it pervades society. Saying racism is bad like Just Mercy does is an easy win; pushing into a person's biases is far more challenging and much more rewarding if done well.

Films like Just Mercy can at least be watchable with the premise and the cast it has in tow and can be more so with good writing. Cretton and Lanham miss heavily on the writing though, in particular when it comes to their central characters. Despite the talent on hand, none of the performers are provided a character to play. Each person is a collection of speeches designed to make the audience either nod in agreement or hiss in anger, sort of like a wrestling match about racism. Building the film around multiple speeches provides the important veneer of power Cretton and Lanham strive for, but at the expense of legitimate character growth and storytelling. Nobody really grows or changes in the film; they start off with an important speech and end with a similar important speech with the journey in between not actually mattering. Stevenson in particular is granted little change; he starts the film as idealistic and angelic and ends the film in the same state. His main flaw is youth, which he overcomes by getting older. I can guess the reason for this view of Stevenson is due to the real-life Stevenson serving as a producer and writing the source material, which explains why a biographical film leans heavily toward the hagiography. (That Just Mercy gives him the cinematic equivalent of a halo in the third act is a little much). It's difficult to succeed with an overly perfect lead character, which is apropos for a film like Just Mercy that tries far too hard and falls short because of it.

Review: Two and a half out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: PG-13
Run time: 136 minutes
Genre: Drama

tl;dr

What Worked: Cast

What Fell Short: Characterization, Dialog, Depth

What To Watch Instead: The Verdict, Fruitvale Station

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