Review 544: Just Mercy

 

Just Mercy is an excellently crafted, deeply affecting legal drama and a showcase for some excellent work from its three leads.

Based on the memoir Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson.

In 1989, after graduating from Harvard, Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned or those not afforded proper representation. One of his first cases is that of Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx), who is sentenced to die in 1987 for the murder of an 18-year-old girl, despite evidence proving his innocence. In the years that follow, Stevenson encounters racism and legal and political maneuverings as he tirelessly fights for McMillian's life.

 

The plot is  McMillian's case was built upon the flimsiest of evidence but it shows how incredibly biased the justice system was to people of colour in those days and even today.

 

Director Destin Daniel Cretton's direction is  the cinematography is making effective use of washed out to convey  the score by Joel P. West is

Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx and Brie Larson are stellar in this film. Jordan delivers a strong, assertive, determined and driven performance playing Bryan Stevenson. He champions the idea of
He was fighting against a system in which institutionalised racism is thriving.

Brie Larson is fantastic playing Eva Ansley,