![]() Rather, it's the protagonists who must overcome their own shame.Īccording to Barton, this was intentional: "There's one scene with a brief homophobic confrontation between Lucy and a girl in a bar, and I guess some secrecy is implied by the fact that Mercy and Lucy have to keep going off together alone, but really we wanted to make a film that was primarily about these women in falling in love," he tells me on the phone after the film’s London premiere. Like Call Me By Your Name or the more underrated Beach Rats – both released last year and both concerned with gay male coming-of-age stories – My Days of Mercy asks its supporting characters to withhold judgement. The most notable thing about it for me, however, was that it seems to fall into a new category of storytelling in contemporary queer cinema, lifting the weight of external homophobia in order to make room for characters to explore their internal homophobia. According to the film’s British scriptwriter, Joe Barton, the idea for the story came from a description he read in a true crime book about how the two real rival campaign groups kept clashing outside of prison executions, and "it just seemed like an interesting place to set a romantic drama". Lucy and Mercy have wildly different ethical outlooks on the death penalty that they must overcome if their relationship can triumph. ![]() Once audiences are done asking themselves whether it's appropriate to cruise at someone's execution, they'll quickly begin to wonder whether it's ever a good idea to start a romance across the picket line. It’s at one of these protests – specifically, a demo against the execution of a mentally ill man who killed a police officer – that Lucy meets Mercy (Kare Mara), who, despite her name, is on the other side of the fence to Lucy, protesting with "The American Institute of Homicide Survivors" in favour of capital punishment. While the clock counts down, Lucy attends demonstrations at American prisons campaigning to end the lethal injection, an issue that's obviously close to her heart. Token Romance: The romance between Lucy and Mercy is sweet, but is otherwise irrelevant to the main plot of Simon Moro's pending execution date.In My Days of Mercy, Ellen plays Lucy, a woman whose father is on death row for a crime he may or may not have committed, with decreasing time to be saved as the film progresses.The two fall for each other and have a relationship despite their disagreement. Queer Romance: Kate, who protests against capital punishment, meets Mercy who's on the opposite side outside a prison.This would be forbidden by most law firms' HR rules, though it's unmentioned in the film. Office Romance: Mercy it turns out is dating her boss at the law firm.They appear in multiple sex scenes and also topless. Maybe Ever After: At the end, Mercy tells Lucy she's broken up with her boyfriend and the two are going out on a date, making it possible they'll be together again.Lady Swearsalot: Lucy, who swears fairly often, especially in contrast with Mercy.Irony: The DNA test Lucy thought would prove her father innocent in fact leads to showing he did it.However, the US Supreme Court has ruled that such prisoners cannot be executed. Hollywood Law: The first prisoner executed (who killed Mercy's dad's partner) is said to have been mentally disabled.Epunymous Title: Mercy is one of the two main characters, though it's also a pun given the film's subject matter.His date for execution is only months away. Her mother was murdered, and her father is now on death row for doing it (but she doesn't believe he's guilty). Dark and Troubled Past: Lucy reveals hers to Mercy.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |