Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx
“JUST MERCY” My rating: C+
136 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13
In “Just Mercy” an A-list cast does its best with movie-of-the-week execution; the results are simultaneously inspiring and off-putting.
Destin Daniel Cretton’s film is based on the true story of attorney Bryan Stevenson and the founding in Alabama in the late 1980s of the Equal Justice Initiative, an organization devoted to re-examining the cases of Death Row inmates. These were condemned men — most of them black — whose convictions may have been based on perjured testimony, suppressed evidence and inadequate defenses.
In addition to its truth-to-power narrative and the obvious dramatic power of men awaiting death at the hands of the state, the film boasts a lead performance by Michael B. Jordan as Stevenson, a New Englander who came to the South to right wrongs.
Oscar winner Brie Larsen takes a supporting role as the local activist who becomes his assistant and guide to the workings of Southern justice.
Butler's Cinema Scene 