{"id":4351,"date":"2024-10-05T20:39:03","date_gmt":"2024-10-05T20:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4351"},"modified":"2024-10-12T21:09:46","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T21:09:46","slug":"clemency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/05\/clemency\/","title":{"rendered":"Clemency"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Clemency<\/strong> (2019)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Neon\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 113 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (some disturbing material, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Chinonye Chukwu\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Chinonye Chukwu\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Kathryn Bostic\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Eric Branco\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: January 17, 2020 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Alfre Woodard, Richard Schiff, Danielle Brooks, Michael O\u2019Neill, Richard Gunn, Wendell Pierce, Aldis Hodge, LaMonica Garrett, Vernee Watson-Johnson, Dennis Haskins, Michelle C. Bonilla, Alma Martinez.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $364,952 (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0I made a promise after seeing the Pauline Kael documentary that I would never again allow myself to be swayed by the opinions of others when reviewing a film. It\u2019s with this thought in mind that I set pen to paper (figuratively speaking, of course) and compose my review of Clemency<\/strong>, the latest drama to address the hot-button topic of the death penalty. Unlike the recent Just Mercy and about 100 other similar films, it doesn\u2019t involve a team of idealistic lawyers and students working tirelessly to prove a condemned inmate\u2019s innocence before his number comes up. The focus this time is on the psychological effects on the prison warden tasked with overseeing executions at the correctional facility where most of the action takes place.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I get that Clemency<\/strong> is a character study of Bernadine Williams (Woodard, Passion Fish), an emotionally paralyzed woman forced to confront her own demons when it comes time to prepare another Death Row inmate, Anthony Woods (Hodge, Brian Banks), for his date with the needle. Her husband Jonathan (Pierce, The Wire) describes her as \u201can empty shell\u201d and he isn\u2019t wrong. She keeps herself emotionally distant from everyone including her husband. It\u2019s all because of the psychological toll her job has taken on her over the years. In this respect, Clemency<\/strong> does its job well thanks in large part to a dynamite performance from Woodard. Why she isn\u2019t nominated for an Academy Award is a mystery. Out of this year\u2019s five nominees, I can think of one that doesn\u2019t really deserve the honor. I won\u2019t mention her name but she\u2019s done better.<\/p>\n

\u00a0That\u2019s what I like about Clemency<\/strong> and this is where I diverge from the majority. I find the rest of the film lacking. Specifically, it\u2019s unfocused. Instead of sticking to the point, it introduces other story elements like the botched execution that opens the film. It stands to reason that an investigation into how it happened would follow. Mention is made of such an investigation on more than one occasion but we never see it. Instead, another execution is scheduled almost immediately. That would be Woods, an accused cop killer whose lawyer (Schiff, The Good Doctor) is trying his hardest to get the governor to grant him clemency based on evidence that proves his innocence. While Clemency<\/strong> isn\u2019t about this, the fact that it\u2019s brought up at all demands more attention.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There are other things like Bernadine\u2019s possible affair with her assistant warden (Gunn, Dark Angel) that are brought up and dropped. What I\u2019m getting at is there\u2019s no follow-through on a lot of Clemency<\/strong>. Other times, director Chinonye Chukwu takes shortcuts. At one point, Bernadine\u2019s husband leaves her. A few scenes later, he\u2019s back home to wake her from a bad dream. What happened? In addition, Chukwu doesn\u2019t make good on his introduction of birds as a symbol for freedom. It should have been a recurring motif throughout, but like a lot of other things it\u2019s dropped.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I will concede that Hodge turns in a near-great performance as Woods, a man shut down emotionally by a fate he\u2019s powerless to change. He\u2019s unable to utter a single word when Bernadine dutifully asks him what he wants for his last meal. It\u2019s the screenplay that does him wrong. We\u2019re expected to believe that he suddenly becomes hopeful after a suicide attempt and a letter telling him he has a son he never knew about. I don\u2019t know about you, but I didn\u2019t buy it. In any event, Hodge brings a measure of dignity to the role especially in his final moments when he delivers a few pointed last words.<\/p>\n

\u00a0So as you can see, I\u2019m really on the fence about Clemency<\/strong>. While I admire what it tries to do through Woodard\u2019s brilliant performance, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s very good as a whole. It has a few powerful moments like the climactic death scene experienced solely through Bernadine\u2019s facial expressions. The camera stays on her the whole time and it is wrenching. The hardened fa\u00e7ade, the emotional distance she maintained through the whole ordeal (and presumably her entire tenure as warden) finally begins to evaporate.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Despite such moments, I couldn\u2019t connect with Clemency<\/strong>. Most of the time, I wished it would make a point. At the very least, I wanted to hear more about the lawyer\u2019s efforts to stop the execution. It bears mentioning that Clemency<\/strong> is based on the real-life story of Troy Davis, a black man executed in Georgia in 2011 for killing a cop despite the preponderance of evidence disproving his guilt. It\u2019s terrible when the system fails; it affects more than just the wrongly executed prisoner. A great movie should be made about this; unfortunately, Clemency<\/strong> is not that movie.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clemency (2019)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Neon\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 113 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (some disturbing material, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Chinonye Chukwu\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Chinonye Chukwu\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Kathryn Bostic\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Eric Branco\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: January 17, 2020 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Alfre Woodard, Richard Schiff, Danielle Brooks, Michael O\u2019Neill, Richard Gunn, Wendell Pierce, Aldis Hodge, LaMonica Garrett, Vernee Watson-Johnson, Dennis Haskins, Michelle C. Bonilla, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Clemency-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4351"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4729,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4351\/revisions\/4729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}