Clemency

It's interesting how some films get love from the Academy Awards while others, that have all the chops of Oscar bait, get ignored. Clemency, a release from late last year, got lost in the shuffle when it came to awards, but Alfre Woodard and Aldis Hodge deserve accolades.

Written and directed by Chinonye Chukwu, Clemency is about death row. As such, it is a very serious, somber film. My only criticism is that even people who work in a prison must have some laughs every once in a while. We do get a scene where Woodard, who is warden of the prison, goes out for drinks with her deputy, but this is an indication of her drinking problem.

Woodard plays the warden as a by-the-book administrator. The film opens with an execution that gets botched because the paramedic can't find a vein. The contradictions of execution--a paramedic, whose job is to save lives, is taking part in a procedure to end life--are all through the film. Another is when a man on death row tries to commit suicide, but is saved. There's a gap in logic there.

The plot then shifts to Hodge, playing a man who has been on death row for fifteen years. He was convicted of murdering a police officer during a robbery, although he and his lawyer (Richard Schiff) maintain he was not the shooter. The ambiguity of his guilt creates another problem--does our attitude about the death penalty change with a person's possible innocence? I would hope so--the possibility of mistake is one of the greatest arguments against the policy.

Hodge has pretty much closed off from the world. In one telling scene, he is allowed to be outside in basically a cage with a basketball, but no hoop. The camera follows him as he walks the perimeter, dribbling, like a caged animal. He only becomes animated when talking to Schiff, who fights for him with appeal after appeal.

Woodard points out that this is her twelfth execution. The work has had a detrimental effect on her--she drinks too much, can't sleep, and her husband (Wendell Pierce) sees her as an empty shell.

There have been other films about the death penalty, most notably Dead Man Walking, and like that film, Clemency lets you make up your own mind. I'm against it, in principle, but there are some, like Timothy McVeigh, whom I shed no tears for. If Hodge had been clearly guilty, it would have changed the dynamic of the film. I think Chukwu herself is against the procedure, but tries to maintain a balance, especially including the parents of the dead officer.

But the acting, oh my! The film is subtle, and so is the acting. Maybe Woodard didn't get nominated because she doesn't have a big scene. She is all bottled up, and most of what we understand about her character comes from what she doesn't say. Chukwu chooses to film the last scene with a long closeup of Woodard, whose face seems to drain right in front of us. As for Hodge, he does have some "acting!" moments, particularly in a scene with his old girlfriend, when he discovers he has a son. Later, he will receive a disappointment, and the look on his face when he realizes it is heartbreaking.

Clemency has no answers about the death penalty, but I don't think art needs to answer questions, just raise them. It does so deeply and effectively.