A powerful and thought-provoking true-story, "Just Mercy" follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Jordan) and his history-making battle for justice. After graduating from Harvard, Bryan might have had his pick of lucrative jobs. Instead, he heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned, with the support of local advocate Eva Ansley (Larson.) One of his first, and most incendiary, cases is that of Walter McMillian (Foxx,) who, in 1987, was sentenced to die for the notorious... (Full plot summary below)
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A powerful and thought-provoking true-story, "Just Mercy" follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Jordan) and his history-making battle for justice. After graduating from Harvard, Bryan might have had his pick of lucrative jobs. Instead, he heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned, with the support of local advocate Eva Ansley (Larson.) One of his first, and most incendiary, cases is that of Walter McMillian (Foxx,) who, in 1987, was sentenced to die for the notorious murder of an 18-year-old girl, despite a preponderance of evidence proving his innocence and the fact that the only testimony against him came from a criminal with a motive to lie. In the years that follow, Bryan becomes embroiled in a labyrinth of legal and political maneuverings and overt and unabashed racism as he fights for Walter, and others like him, with the odds-and the system-stacked against them.
Leave your thoughts about Just Mercy.
| Washington PostAnn HornadayIn the judicious hands of director and co-writer Destin Daniel Cretton, it feels not new exactly, but fresh and urgent and more timely than ever. |
| New York PostSara StewartProfoundly moving and, at times, almost unbearably sad. |
| The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerThe filmmakers and actors imbue the characters with remarkable depth of feeling. |
| The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJordan and Foxx take the little material they’re given and play it as deep as possible, turning in memorable, eventually gut-punching performances. |
| Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattIt’s solidly rewarding to watch the wheels of Mercy turn, though the direction ... can’t seem to help falling into certain schematics that tend to follow movies like these: the original sin; the uplift; the leering good-old-boy sheriffs; the big-moment court scenes. |
| IndieWireEric KohnWhile the movie runs too long and the message grows thin, it’s a sturdy window into the corruption of the judicial process that can send an innocent black man to death row. |
| San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJust Mercy isn’t the best movie that could have been made from its subject, but it’s good enough. |
| Movie NationRoger MooreJust Mercy is a movie about a touchstone case that proved that to be a lie, a righteous, well-intentioned but uneven emotional roller coaster of a film that plays it safe a little too often itself. |
| The Film StageChristopher SchobertIt is impossible to walk away from Just Mercy unmoved. ... Yet Destin Daniel Cretton’s third feature also feels a bit predictable, a bit obvious, and never quite as compelling as one might expect. |
| IGNJoi ChildsPowerful performances and solid direction elevate the conventional but impassioned fact-based drama Just Mercy. |
