CNN —Getting the delicate balance of the story mostly right, “Till” captures how Mamie Till Mobley turned the inconsolable grief over the murder of her son, Emmett, into resolve and activism.
Anchored by Danielle Deadwyler’s towering performance, it’s a wrenching portrayal of reluctant heroism under the most horrific of parental circumstances.
Danielle Deadwyler as Mamie Till Mobley.
More than 65 years after his death, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act was signed into law earlier this year – a sign, as Chukwu notes in a director’s statement, of “present cultural and political realities” that echo through the film.
“Till” clearly felt the weight of that legacy, and there’s a difficult-to-avoid aspect to the production that can’t entirely escape a movie-of-the-week feel.