Dir. Destin Daniel Cretton (trailer)
Just Mercy is a moving and well-made film based on the true story of attorney Bryan Stevenson and his fight to free a wrongly accused man on death row. Starring Michael B. Jordan as Bryan Stevenson, Jamie Foxx as Walter McMillian, and Brie Larson as Stevenson's assistant, this film is part courtroom drama, part biopic, but never feels bogged down by the formulaic devices that usually follow those genres.
The film begins with Stevenson, just out of Harvard, meeting with various death row inmates who do not have adequate representation. Each step of the way the legal system fights against Stevenson and makes it hard for him to see his clients, by forcing him to strip search before meetings and illegally pulling him over. As he and his assistant Eva Ansley battle multiple cases, one even going before the US Supreme Court, Stevenson focuses on Walter McMillian's case.
Michael B. Jordan gives an amazing performance, possibly his career best, as a compassionate yet frustrated attorney fighting to free wrongly convicted men. The film does a great job of showing Stevenson as he goes from a naïve newly graduated attorney, to one realizing he will have to fight against a system bigger than himself.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Recommended for fans of: drama, Marshall (2017), Dark Waters (2019), biographical, Brian Banks (2018)
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