Just Mercy (2019) | Film Review

The late 80s are not what one’s mind leaps to in terms of considering the grave injustices of racial politics in America. We have become so accustomed to nostalgic trips like Stranger Things and Cobra Kai that we look back at that time with reverence and warmth. It wasn’t that long ago, and for many of us, we were kids at the time. Children who enjoyed a carefree existence, blissfully unaware of the tragically horrific situations like the one Walter McMillian endures during the course of Just Mercy.

Directed and co-written by Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12), Just Mercy follows Harvard graduate and real-life legal angel Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) as he secures funding for the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting convicted felons in Alabama who the system has somehow denied a fair trial. Joining him on his quest is Cretton’s frequent collaborator Brie Larson as Eva Ansley, functioning as Bryan’s eyes and tour guide into the underlying racism that permeated throughout the South.

Bryan’s first major case is to free the wrongly convicted and horrendously mistreated Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx), often referred to as Johnny D. Believed to have murdered an 18 year-old white woman, McMillian was convicted despite numerous witnesses placing him 11 miles away at the time of the crime and without a shred of physical evidence, secured by the unconscionable testimony of Ralph Myers (Tim Blake Nelson, extending his stellar streak of Southern derelicts). Throughout their ordeal, Stevenson learns the extent to which the legal wheel is broken in Alabama, as well as forges a kinship with the prisoners under his watch.

Great legal thrillers are a dying breed and Just Mercy, it should be noted, is not a legal thriller in the purest sense. There are many discussions of legal precedence, filing motions, and testimony; yet very little time occurs inside a courtroom. Instead, we find Bryan grappling with racial prejudice in every facet as he seeks his idealized version of righteousness for McMillian, while also following the rather pedantic and insanely convoluted hoops Bryan is forced to jump through for this so-called “justice”.

We spend ample amounts of time with McMillian himself, his family and friends, and Bryan as he seeks to right this horrendous wrong through the mundane practice of faxing motions and waiting for Supreme Court phone calls. It’s a refreshing approach to expectations, though one that suffers from a noticeable lack of “sizzle” as legal procedures are presented for the monotone bores they are.

Michael B. Jordan solidly presents Bryan as a young man determined to lend his knowledge and dedication to the pursuit of justice, casting his own potential for riches and success to the wind. Bryan endures moments of humiliation and intimidation throughout the film, forcing him to accept that even a Harvard lawyer is just a black man in Alabama…and he needs to tailor his game to that fact. Jordan resigns himself to remaining within the inner strength of his character, never giving way to showmanship or the outrageously theatrical speechifying often found in films of this nature.

The real star of Just Mercy though, is Jamie Foxx. Oscar winner, singer, comedian, there is nothing Foxx cannot do. And once again, Foxx commands every scene he takes part in so ferociously, his sheer gravitas swallowing the film so completely that every frame he’s absent from, his presence still feels front-and-center. When we meet Johnny D, he’s resigned to his fate. Death row is where he lives now. Slowly and surely, he begins to believe again, clawing his way back to humanity through Foxx’s eyes. When Foxx eventually brings his full weight to the screen, finally denying his fate by defiantly refusing to enter his prison cell, it’s well established that Jamie Foxx wears the heart of this film confidently on his sleeve.

Just Mercy is not a perfect film, the pacing meanders a bit and rudimentary legal motions can be sluggish to wade through. Yet this is a story with the heart of a lion; a true life tale of two men determined to change the course of their own histories by refusing to accept the simple-mindedness of a community desperate to lay blame on an innocent man. It’s a film that demonstrates the path to fixing a broken system begins with repairing the human spirit.