JUST MERCY : Wednesday 5th February 2020.

'JUST MERCY' is an M Rated American true story legal drama which I saw at my local multiplex earlier this week and is Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton in his fourth feature film after 2012's 'I Am Not a Hipster', 2013's 'Short Term 12' and 2017's 'The Glass Castle'. Following this outing Cretton is slated to Direct 'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' for the MCU Phase 4 due for release in 2021 and currently in pre-production. The film saw its World Premier screening at TIFF in early September last year, went on limited release on Christmas Day in the US (to qualify for awards season recognition), has garnered generally favourable Reviews so far, and has taken US$38M at the Box Office before its much wider release from mid-January. 'Just Mercy' is based on the 2014 memoir of the same name, written by Bryan Stevenson.

After some initial scene setting and a quick back story, the main thrust of this film moves to 1989 when young Harvard law graduate Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) relocates himself to Alabama to help fight poor down trodden and often abused people who more often than not are unable to fund proper legal representation for themselves. Meeting up with Eva Ansley (Brie Larson) he forms the 'Equal Justice Initiative' in Montgomery, Alabama, initially operating out of Eva's home before moving into a more appropriate office environment.

Stevenson then travels to Holman State Prison in Atmore, Alabama to meet with a number of its death row inmates for whom the legal system has failed them. There he meets with inmates Herbert Richardson (Rob Morgan), Anthony Ray Hinton (O'Shea Jackson) and Walter 'Johnny D' McMillan (Jamie Foxx), amongst a few others. He offers to help all three, but McMillan's cause seems to be the most compelling as the case against him is full of holes.

McMillan on the face of it, appears to have been wrongfully imprisoned for the 1986 murder of eighteen year old Ronda Morrison in Monroeville, Alabama. His conviction was wrongfully obtained, based on police coercion and perjury, and in the 1988 trial, the judge imposed the death penalty, even though the jury imposed a sentence of life imprisonment. Stevenson examines the evidence and discovers that it hinges entirely on the testimony of convicted criminal Ralph Myers (Tim Blake Nelson), who provided a highly self-contradictory testimony in exchange for a lighter sentence in his own upcoming trial at the time.

Stevenson's first move is to visit the local prosecutor Tommy Chapman (Rafe Spall) for assistance, but Chapman dismisses him without even looking at his notes, saying that as far as he is concerned justice has been served and it is his job to keep his towns people and his local community safe. Having drawn a blank with Chapman, Stevenson then drives out to the McMillan family homestead on the outskirts of town. There he meets with McMillan family friend Darnell Houston (Darrell Britt-Gibson) who says that he was working with Ralph Myers in an auto workshop the morning of the murder and as such there is no way that Myers could have witnessed the events that unfolded that fateful day. Furthermore, the whole of the McMillan family and extended family swear that Johnny D was in fact at a fish fry that same morning, but that too was not accounted for in his defence. Darnell's testimony plus previously undisclosed or obviously overlooked facts would cause the prosecution's case to fall apart. But when Stevenson submits Darnell's testimony, police quickly arrest him for perjury. However, while Stevenson is able to get the perjury charges dropped, Darnell is intimidated into refusing to testify in court for fear of further reprisals against him.

Bryan then meets with Myers in prison. Eventually Myers admits that his testimony was coerced from him after police played to his childhood fear of burning and threatened to have him executed by electric chair. Myers was as a seven year old boy badly burned when his pyjamas caught fire wile he slept and has facial and upper body scars as a result, and says that he can still smell his skin burning, a smell that he is familiar with too from his experiences with prison inmates executed by the electric chair. 

Stevenson then appeals to the local court to grant McMillan a retrial, and successfully convinces Myers to recant his testimony on the stand, but regardless the judge refuses to grant a retrial. Distraught, Bryan vents his frustrations about the case to Eva. He appears on '60 Minutes' in an attempt to generate public support in McMillan's favour, and then appeals to the Supreme Court of Alabama. The Supreme Court overturns the circuit court's decision, and grants McMillan his retrial. 

Stevenson then seeks to have the charges completely dismissed. He later visits Chapman at his home and tries to convince him to join him in his motion, but Chapman steadfastly refuses and angrily orders him off his property. On the day of the motion, Stevenson appeals to the judge. Chapman surprisingly, given the almost overwhelming evidence presented agrees to join him in his motion and the case is dismissed. With no prosecution, the judge declares that with immediate effect McMillan is free to go, and so after six years Johnny D is finally reunited with his family, a free man. 

In the closing credits, we learn that McMillan remained friends with Stevenson until his death in 2013. A follow-up investigation into Ronda Morrison's death confirmed McMillan's innocence and speculated that a white man was likely responsible, although to this day the case has never been solved. Furthermore, Sheriff Tate (Michael Harding) who at the time arrested McMillan just because he looked guilty and was ultimately responsible for either concealing or completely ignoring the evidence that would have conclusively proven that McMillan was innocent, was elected to the office of Sheriff a further six times. Meanwhile Stevenson successfully had Anthony Ray Hinton's case overturned and after 28 years on Alabam's death row was finally freed in 2015. Herbert Richardson, was not so lucky, and he was executed by electric chair on 18th August 1989, and was one of 66 people to have been executed in Alabama since the resumption of capital punishment, most of whom would not have been executed if they had received timely and effective legal aid and advice.

'Just Mercy' is an important real life story of racial prejudice, the rich and poor divide, and the inequalities inflicted upon man just because of the way he may look, or the colour of his skin. Lesson's that still ring true today, just as much as they did thirty years ago when this story started to unfold. Jordan gives a nuanced, understated and restrained performance as the considered, tenacious and patient Stevenson, and Foxx gives arguably one of his best performances in years. This is a slow burning film, that Director Cretton allows the story to speak for itself without diving into dramatic over the top poetic licence territory, and my research of the Equal Justice Initiative and Bryan Stevenson seems to indicate that this story is faithfully recreated keeping largely to the facts as they unfolded. This film has so far collected seven award wins and another eight nominations from around the festivals and awards circuit, and the importance of this film cannot be underestimated. Worth the price of your cinema ticket for sure.

'Just Mercy' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-