Film review: Danielle Deadwyler gives a towering performance in Till

Jalyn Hall as Emmett Till and Danielle Deadwyler as Mamie Till Mobley in TILL, directed by Chinonye Chukwu, released by Orion Pictures

★★★★☆

Few films in recent times have opened with such a sense of foreboding as Till (12A).

The setting is Chicago, the year is 1955, and boisterous teenager Emmett Till (Jalyn Hall) is singing along with the car radio as his mother Mamie (Danielle Deadwyler) gazes on fondly. The upbeat, schmaltzy song, of course, is an ironic counterpoint for what is to come: within a matter of weeks, whilst visiting with his cousins in Mississippi, the 14-year-old Emmett will be beaten to death for daring to speak out of turn to a white woman.

Written by Michael Reilly, Keith Beauchamp and Chinonye Chukwu, with Chukwu directing, Till is a powerful dramatization of Mamie Till-Mobley’s battle to secure justice on behalf of her son, which is undertaken at the prompting of the NAACP, which was campaigning at the time to have lynching declared a federal crime.

Danielle Deadwyler as Mamie Till Mobley and Whoopi Goldberg as Alma Carthan in TILL

But Mamie’s crusade, both personal and political, only accounts for the second half of the film: the first half is spent getting to know Emmett himself, who is portrayed by Jalyn Hall as a naïve but happy-go-lucky boy who fairly fizzes with mischief. 

Repeatedly warned by his mother that life is different down South, the Chicago-born Emmett brushes off her concerns as any self-respecting teenager would, and sets out for Mississippi armoured with the iron-clad self-assurance of youth.

Hall’s winning charm notwithstanding, the film belongs to Danielle Deadwyler, who has surely secured herself an Oscar nomination for her performance as a woman who experiences every parent’s worst nightmare. 

Here Deadwyler runs through what seems like the entire gamut of emotions, from love and terror to guilt and despair. It’s a towering performance of dignity trembling on the brink of explosive rage, and she gets strong support from John Douglas Thompson as Emmett’s uncle, Preacher, and Sean Patrick Thomas as Gene Mobley, Mamie’s partner.

We are spared the heinous crime itself — we hear Emmett’s death, rather than see it — but we are not spared the consequences: Mamie’s courageous decision to have an open-casket funeral, so the world could look on the brutalised body of her son, forced a shocked America to stare into the face of naked racism.

(cinema release)