Movie Review: Clemency

Michael's Movie Grade: A+

An incredibly powerful and intelligent movie.

This film is a brilliant character study of a  prison warden with whom having to carry out death row executions has taken an emotional and psychological toll on her. There have been so many movies about innocent men on death row, but few about the people who have to do this thankless and emotionally taxing job. To have to be around death, to have to spend time talking with the people you are going kill and to have no control and no choice but to kill these prisoners whether you believe them to be guilty or not would take its toll on anybody. I could not even imagine how someone could do this for a job. The portrayal we see here is of a woman who has cut herself off from any emotional connection with anything. She is afraid to be human because to be human means having to face the implications of what she does for a living. This is all held together by an incredible performance by Alfre Woodard. Her performance is incredibly human in the subtlest of ways. As she is playing a character that is afraid of being human her emotions cannot be broad or the whole film would fail. Yet underneath this all you can see her humanity trying to sneak through in subtle ways. This is a masterful performance that I simply cannot praise enough. Not giving anything away but the closing scene of this film is a tour de force for this actress and screen acting at its finest. Writer and director Chinonye tells this story as well as possible. This is not a fast moving film, but any means yet it is completely engrossing for every second and never once lets go of your attention or emotions. This is a film without an excess. Every scene has a propose to be here and adds to the overall feel of the story.

This is an incredible movie that will haunt you long after it is over.

-Michael J. Ruhland