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Every job has its own kinds of dangers—from health risks to physical injuries to emotional dangers of stress and anxiety. But in Clemency, a strong woman who’s spent years dedicated to her job finds herself facing a variety of hazards caused by years of emotional strain.
Clemency stars Alfre Woodard as Bernadine Williams, the warden of a prison that carries out death row executions. During her career, Warden Williams has overseen the executions of eleven prisoners, and it’s started to take its toll—especially after the most recent execution didn’t go according to plan. As she begins the preparations for her twelfth execution, she goes through all of the same steps at all of the same times. But she also struggles with the emotional, psychological, and even physical effects of the job as it begins to tear her marriage apart.
In the days leading up to the execution, it’s all routine: the same rehearsals, the same instructions, the same checklist of things to do. But it’s the very routine of it all that makes this film difficult to watch. As Anthony Woods (Aldis Hodge) tries to remain hopeful that he’ll be granted clemency for a crime that he maintains that he didn’t commit, reality begins to set in. The warden reads through the timeline of how he will die as he sits quietly in his cell, unable to speak or move. And it all seems so cold—which, of course, is exactly as it’s supposed to be.
Of course, the characters and their situations come together to make this an emotional story. Woods is a good-natured, articulate man—not a hardened criminal who fights the guards and screams obscenities at the warden. And as they prepare for his execution. many of the people around the prison are giving up and walking away—from the chaplain, who’s retiring to escape the darkness that surrounds him, to Woods’s lawyer, who just can’t watch his clients die anymore. And that makes the film’s message come through loud and clear.
Meanwhile, Woodard’s performance is generally as steady and reserved as her character. Bernadine is a pretty even-keeled character who’s learned that there’s no room in her job for personal feelings. She’s there to do the work, to go through the steps, and to do it all by the book. She treats her inmates with respect, but she shows no emotion, keeps her distance. When the wall that she’s built around her starts to crumble, it does so in small, subtle ways. She doesn’t break down. She doesn’t behave erratically. She simply starts losing sleep. She makes small changes and begins to ask questions that she’s never asked before. And the tiny cracks begin to show. Even then, it still feels quiet and rather distant—but this is the kind of film that doesn’t need over-the-top performances to make its point.
Clemency was carefully crafted to show viewers the horrors of capital punishment for everyone involved—and it’s definitely successful. It may not be a big, bold, wildly emotional film, but it will still make you feel the weight of the situation.
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