“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” “Revolutionary Road,” “Closer,” and more recently “A Marriage Story” are just a few of the lengthy list of movies that examine the complexities of married life and the ravages that outside pressures can wreak on it. The protagonists in these films though, are usually white. Films featuring Black characters’ marriages aren’t typically thoughtful, three-dimensional portrayals. That’s why “Clemency,” starring Alfre Woodard as prison warden Bernadine Williams and Aldis Hodge as death row inmate Anthony Woods is such a pleasant surprise. Though lauded for its excellently wrought main story about the impending state-sponsored execution of inmate Anthony Woods and its impact on those who will facilitate it, “Clemency” is also a movie about a marriage.
Scheduled for release on Dec. 27, “Clemency” places Bernadine’s domestic life in parallel with her professional one and treats her marriage to Jonathan (Wendell Pierce) as more than mere decoration. Director Chinonye Chukwu and Woodard give the audience a measured and unvarnished view of both of Bernadine’s lives. The overarching question is, can Bernadine regularly facilitate death at work yet continue to breathe life into her marriage?
Like an Ernie Barnes canvas, Chukwu’s “Clemency” fairly bursts with characters. The director adroitly layers in a number of stories: Anthony, the victim’s parents, the prison chaplain, Anthony’s lawyer, the officer running the actual execution, Anthony’s ex-girlfriend, Bernadine’s husband, there’s even a botched execution. It’s a lot for one two-hour film but it is written, directed, and acted with such skill and brilliant efficiency, it never feels crowded, forced, contrived, or rushed. And though audience members are clear on what each character thinks and feels, the film never demands that they choose a side.
Chukwu expertly does the same with Bernadine and Jonathan’s marriage. Bernadine isn’t easy to like. For one thing, at the film’s outset, she has a better relationship with the regulars at the local bar (Woodard does one of the most realistic portrayals of inebriation) than she does with Jonathan.
By contrast, Jonathan is a high school English teacher and the quintessential good guy. He hasn’t allowed Bernadine’s existential crisis to push him to cheat on her or give up on the marriage. In fact, he views it as a challenge for him to step up and fight like hell to keep their union intact. His deep passion and love for Bernadine is beautiful, yet heartbreaking, to witness.
Yet Chukwu and the actors’ commit to creating characters who are real people figuring out life in realistic ways and they’re all drawn as multifaceted people. We see a flash of Jonathan’s bad side in one scene, interestingly set to the soundtrack of unsung funk musician Derondo’s sultry track “Sexy Mama.” Jonathan uses their anniversary dinner as a pretext to try to convince Bernadine to retire from her job. He pitifully entreaties Bernadine but they fall on deaf ears and Bernadine becomes more defensive. Jonathan’s own ego rears its own head then. He reminds her he has sacrificed a lot for her.
It becomes clear that some ego is at the core of why Bernadine is unable to remove herself from a job that is tearing at her very being. What she does, she explains to Jonathan, is “not a job, it’s a profession.” What Jonathan is trying to get across, but Bernadine still doesn’t clearly see, is that this “profession” puts the responsibility of life and death in her hands without any actual power over life and death; and that powerlessness has robbed her of her. It’s given her an identity but stolen her selfhood.
Jonathan’s strength and determination begin to rub off on Bernadine eventually and she begins to focus more on her marriage. The bar recedes in importance and becomes more of a warm acquaintance than a bosom buddy.
There is a lot to unpack in “Clemency” and Bernardine and Jonathan is just the beginning. Danielle Brooks, as Anthony’s baby’s mother, makes a brief but devastating appearance upending notions of loyalty when parental incarceration interferes with parenting. Another couple coming to grips with the havoc criminal justice often wreaks on Black lives.
Chukwu has stated previously that she initially began working on “Clemency” because she was fascinated by the question of “having your livelihood to be tied to the taking of people’s lives.” What she ended up with was so much more than that, not the least of which is a loud proclamation that Black life, and Black love, is worth fighting for.