my days of mercy

Film, 2017, 3 stars

Directed by: Tali Shalom Ezer
Written by: Joe Barton

You know when you really really wanna love something but you can’t? That describes almost every Elliot Page film I’ve seen except Juno and Whip It. He has an alarming habit of being the best thing in less worthy projects, which says a lot about the industry and how it’s difficult to fit someone so original into the usual boxes. Elliot Page has regularly given masterclasses in acting throughout his career, and My Days of Mercy was no exception.

This is also a truly interesting premise, though it suffers from egregiously preachy tendencies. Lucy Moro (Elliot Page) and her young brother and older sister are involved with the anti-death penalty movement, and they travel in an RV all over the country to attend protests. Mercy (Kate Mara) is a regular protestor on the other side of the issue.

The premise is relatively simple, though the script does its darndest to make it complicated. Lucy and Mercy meet at a protest, and their eyes lock in instant curiosity, despite being on opposing sides. They begin at first a sexually charged friendship and communicate in person and on skype. This blossoms into a relationship as they keep meeting, accidentally and intentionally, at various protests.

Mercy has become involved in the pro movement because of a man who killed her cop father’s ex-partner. Lucy and her siblings are working their way through the court system to prevent their father from being executed for killing their mother. The lovers obviously lock horns on the issue that divides them, but in all other ways they’re oddly compatible, and the chemistry between them is sizzling.

It is in fact when Page and Mara are given free rein to play with that chemistry that the film sings. Mercy is an aggressor with more outward confidence in herself and what she wants, but she’s concealing a devasting secret. Lucy is shy and bumbling but so achingly honest. Page has a way of conveying deep feelings of angst and betrayal in a way that feels so sickeningly real it hits you in the gut. They never quite fit, in this odd but glorious way.

A sub-plot where Lucy’s sister is sleeping with their father’s defense lawyer is just too much plot for this short film to handle, and the machinations of the appeals for their father are cold and mechanical—especially since we are also exploring whether he is guilty or not. The film needed to be one thing or the other, and trying to cram so much in did none of the storylines any favours.

This is an issue film at the end of the day. It’s trying to make a point about capital punishment, but it does so in an extraordinarily unsubtle way, right down to calling one of the characters Mercy and making a reference in the film itself. It hits all the expected tropes of the court appeals process and family trauma.

This side of the film is so paint-by-numbers it makes us complicit in constantly wanting the focus to move back to the relationship, which ironically is exactly how Lucy feels. Mercy is a way out for her, an escape from this dismal existence, which makes it all the more painful when Mercy’s double life comes to light.

The film also doesn’t find a way to fully convey with the intended emotional impact what it must feel like to stand in a chamber and watch someone put to death, no matter which side of the issue you’re on. This should have been a watershed moment, but is undermined with character bickering and conventional filmmaking choices that fail to hit the right beats.

To conclude the film, somehow Lucy must find a way to go on and discover who she is on her own without the crutch of her sister, the court case, the protest movement, or even Mercy to sustain her. Again, Page’s brilliance pulls us through, and we can’t help but ache for Lucy and the journey we have known from the beginning she must undertake.

It’s maddeningly inconsistent, and well-meaning but contrived. The performances are consistently strong across the board but the filmmaking isn’t. If the film hadn’t been backed by so much talent and firepower woudl I have expected, or been happy with less? I don’t know. I do wish the director and writer had made so many different choices, but it’s a fundamentally solid watch if only just to see two actors like Page and Mara really connect the way they do.

Note: Yep, this is tricky. Elliot Page the actor is he/him, but the character he’s playing here was she/her. That’s what I’m sticking to.