Just Mercy (2020) Review

It feels like an important time to watch this film with it being Black History Month and here is my review for the film Just Mercy. The premise of the film is based on true events that sees a Civil Rights Defence Attorney aim to free a wrongly convicted man. 

Main Character

Michael B Jordan is seriously one of the best actors around and once again he knocks it out of the park here. He is fantastic as the defence lawyer, you truly believe that he really cares about the cases he takes on and how that makes him so different to the other lawyers shown in the film. He is just so good and I thought his presence was just really powerful in this film. 

Supporting Characters

Jamie Foxx plays the man convicted of the crime and he is brilliant, he conveys so much emotion and you just feel so much sympathy for him and really care about him and want to see him succeed. I mean Jordan and Foxx don't have too many scenes together but the two of them knock it out of the park here and when they are together they shine even more. The rest of the cast are great too, Brie Larson is great, Tim Blake Nelson is great, Rafe Spall is great and O'shea Jackson Jnr is great. They just add so much quality to this film and their roles feel genuine and compliment the two main performances even better. 

Story 

The story is incredibly powerful, seeing this man really go above and beyond to try and get this man freed, who from the very beginning of the film you can pretty much tell is innocent. With this being based on a true story it didn't exactly give them much room to manoeuvre and I thought they were respectful and showed just how bad racism can be and how it can really change people's lives.  

Script

The script is really good, the drama is there and you feel the emotion when you are supposed to, you care about the characters and want to see them succeed in their journey. Characters are pretty layered and they range and aren't all stereotypes, in fact there are few stereotypes which helps improve the film. 

Style 

The Style of the film does its job, it is a really gripping film, without particularly gripping things happening. There is just an intense feeling about the film that something bad can happen. Also the film flowed really nicely and despite the slower feeling was paced well. Now onto my one criticism of the film and that there are a few parts of the film that are never followed up on and feel like they didn't have to be here, also for a film involving law, there is a lack of court scenes and I think the film could have used more here. 

Overall

Overall, this is a fantastic film, it hits the levels necessary for a story like this and is one of those films that are really important. It is an important watch and one that I think people should find to watch.

Rating - 9/10