Film recommendation: Clemency
A brilliant performance from Alfre Woodard powers this taut, vital, moral drama about the toll on all involved of the death penalty.
This film, which won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, follows prison warden Bernardine Williams (Alfre Woodard) through a crisis in the lead up to the thirteenth execution she must oversee. The twelfth execution, which opens the film, went wrong and now she is under extra scrutiny as time draws near for convicted murderer Antony Woods (Aldis Hodge).
We follow Williams closely and it is clear she is struggling – she is drinking too much, not sleeping and arguing with her husband Jonathan (Wendell Pierce). He wants them both to retire – an interesting flip on the usual portrayal of a wife begging her husband to slow down and spend more time at home. But she...
