Death-row drama Clemency delivers an unflinching and touching look at the brutality of capital punishment

IT may be incredibly difficult to watch in places – but you really, really should try.

Death-row drama Clemency is an unflinching and touching look at the brutality of capital punishment, and it is a real humdinger.

Bernadine Willliams (Alfre Woodard) is a prison warden overseeing a botched execution of an inmate.

Veins can’t be found and the suffering is obvious.

We are thrown into her world — and see how her public mask hides the face of someone feeling the pressures.

Watch him unravel

She drinks too much, her marriage is in trouble and she is struggling to keep a lid on her beliefs.

With the system under scrutiny after the dreadful events at the top of the film, we follow the journey of inmate Anthony Woods (Aldis Hodge), a man insisting on his innocence, but who has just lost his final appeal.

Bernadine attempts to prepare him for death. As all around her (the chaplain, her husband, a prison guard — hell, even the inmate) prepare to move on, she is inextricably tied to her past.

As the film progressed I found myself grimly fascinated at the straightforward presentation of death row procedure. The silence, the boredom — and the hope.

As Woods draws closer to his fate, we watch him unravel. Two contrasting scenes bring it home — one so brutal I couldn’t watch and the other is where he’s asked for his choice of final meal. When it boils down to it, who would actually care?

Released overseas in 2019 and now available on Curzon Home Cinema (one of the breakout stars of lockdown), it is unforgivable that Woodard was overlooked by the Academy this year.

She is astounding and this film is deeply moving.

Clemency (18) 112mins

Curzon Home Cinema

★★★★★

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