NEW YORK – The compelling fact-based drama “Till” (United Artists) recounts a series of events that, more than 65 years ago, transformed one family’s personal tragedy into a landmark moment in the modern struggle for civil rights.
While discreetly handled, the savage details of the murder case on which the film focuses make the film too harsh for younger viewers. Their elders, by contrast, will find the movie a searing, yet ultimately uplifting, experience – one from whose educational value older adolescents, in particular, may benefit.
In the late summer of 1955, 14-year-old Chicago resident Emmett Till (Jalyn Hall) traveled south to visit relatives in rural Mississippi. There, his supposedly flirtatious interaction with local storekeeper Carolyn Bryant (Haley Bennett) was perceived as transgressing one of the most sensitive aspects of the Jim Crow code by which African Americans below the Mason-Dixon line were kept in subjugation.
Within a few days, Till had been abducted, tortured and shot and his body dumped into a nearby river. The worst forebodings of his devoted mother Mamie (Danielle Deadwyler), a widow who had been anxious about the happy-go-lucky lad’s foray into culturally alien territory even before his departure, were thus realized as she first learned of his disappearance and then received confirmation of his death.
The courageous actions Mamie undertook in the wake of Emmett’s demise made his lynching a matter of long-overdue nationwide concern. Though the legal system proved predictably unreliable, consciences were stirred in a way that may have laid the groundwork for such mass efforts as the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott initiated only a few months after Emmett met his grim fate.
Deadwyler’s intensely emotional depiction of a grieving parent’s determination to force the world to confront what has been done to her child helps to render “Till” a touching and memorable masterwork. So, too, does director and co-writer Chinonye Chukwu’s deft treatment of her story.
The script, penned in collaboration with Michael Reilly and Keith Beauchamp, charts Mamie’s attempt to balance private concerns with the broader implications of the calamity.
Both her mother, Alma Carthan (Whoopi Goldberg), and her uncle, Moses Wright (John Douglas Thompson), Emmett’s host in Mississippi, feel guiltily implicated in Mamie’s loss. Meanwhile, activists such as Medgar (Tosin Cole) and Myrlie Evers (Jayme Lawson) are understandably anxious to capitalize on the revulsion stirred by the youngster’s slaying.
As Mamie copes with her grief and navigates these troubled waters, believing moviegoers will appreciate her enduring commitment to God and the heartfelt prayers by which she is shown to be sustained. Only a sense of decency is required, however, to perceive that her tale of mingled bereavement and triumph is – both for better and worse – still a timely and relevant one.
Look for: A resounding affirmation of humane values founded on Christian faith.
Look out for: Offscreen but overheard torturous violence, gruesome images, mature themes, at least one use of profanity, a couple of milder oaths and racial slurs.
The Catholic Moviegoer’s guidance is T – suitable for mature teens. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 – parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
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