Michael B. Jordan’s Just Mercy performance proves Oscars snub
Just Mercy details the true story of an idealistic lawyer facing racial roadblocks. But despite gripping performances, particularly from Michael B. Jordan, the flick’s been unfairly snubbed by awards season.
Entertainment
Don't miss out on the headlines from Entertainment. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A man is sitting on death-row. His execution is not considered a matter of if, simply when.
His guilt is not proven, by the way. What matters is that, as a man of colour, he conveniently fits the profile of someone who might have killed a young white woman in the southern US state of Alabama in the mid-1980s.
Real-life cases like those of Walter McMillan (played by Jamie Foxx) have often been covered by Hollywood come Oscars time. Which is not to say there can ever be too many of them.
Particularly if they are put together in a form as powerful, provocative and genuine inspiring as that of Just Mercy.
Michael B. Jordan (Creed, Black Panther) co-stars as Bryan Stevenson, a young Harvard-educated lawyer who turned his back on a lucrative career to mount pro bono defences of lost causes like those of Walter McMillan.
Upon arriving in Monroe County, Alabama, to set up a non-profit organisation which will specialise in getting wrongly convicted clients off death-row, Stevenson is continually reminded by locals that this is the same region where the famous book To Kill a Mockingbird was set.
It does not take long for Stevenson to realise that the people of Monroe did not learn much about tolerance or empathy from Harper Lee’s novel.
Upon one of his first visits to McMillan in a maximum-security prison, Stevenson is subjected to a humiliating strip search by a leering guard. It will not be the last indignity suffered by Stevenson as he delves into McMillan’s case.
Almost every roadblock put in Stevenson’s way is not so much because he is a liberal-leaning lawyer, but almost always because he is black.
Even McMillan has his doubts that Stevenson can be an effective advocate on his behalf. It is only once that the rookie lawyer petitions the McMillan family and the county’s African-American community to drum up some fresh evidence for Walter that the tide begins to turn.
What remains astonishing about the case of Walter McMillan over three decades later is how little effort it took by the local police to book him an appointment with the electric chair.
The evidence against the self-employed lumberjack was barely in the realm of the circumstantial. It all came down to the word of a convicted criminal named Ralph Myers (Tim Blake Nelson), a less-than-reliable witness who was facing a possible stint on death-row himself when he identified McMillan as a killer.
Remarkably, even when Stevenson and his assistant researcher Eva (Brie Larson) find tape recordings of Myers proving the dubious nature of his testimony, the Alabama justice system refuses to reconsider McMillan’s case.
The courtroom-drama component of this solid production arrives relatively late, but is well worth sticking around for, simply due to the resounding emotional crescendo struck.
As for the performances and direction, well, while the coming Oscars have all but overlooked the quality work on display here, all contributions are of a calibre worthy of such a vital true story.
MORE MOVIES
KRISTEN STEWART THRILLER LEAVES AUDIENCE IN TOO DEEP
1917 BETTER THAN SAVING PRIVATE RYAN
THE MOST OVERRATED MOVES OF 2019
Just Mercy (M)
Director: Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12)
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Brie Larson, Tim Blake Nelson, Rafe Spall, O’Shea Jackson.
Rating : ***1/2 (out of five)
Standing tall to a court short