Review of Clemency

Clemency (2019)
Character study of a death row warden and her death row inmate.
3 July 2020
Judging from the relatively few votes it appears that not many have seen this movie. It is done very well but moves along quite deliberately. It is a fictional story inspired by real people and real events. It is mainly a character study of the warden, a woman, who for some years has been regularly required to preside over the execution of death row inmates after their appeals have run out. She has gotten very clinical about it, in one scene she is questioning the next one scheduled in a couple of days, asking if anyone wants to bury him, or what the prison will do "with the body" almost as if she were talking to someone other than the inmate.

This is an indication of how the psychology of her job has affected her, hardened her, and devolving into a seemingly inability to connect romantically with her husband, a professor. When he suggests they might retire and get different jobs, the change might do them good, she retorts that hers isn't just a job, it is her profession.

The movie also addresses the character of the condemned inmate, 15 years after a crime. What he is going through as his lawyer tries to gain clemency for him, at the same time trying to prepare himself for the execution if it comes to that.

This is a good movie of a difficult story, I am glad that I watched it, at home on DVD from my public library.
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