Till is based on the true story of Emmett Till, a young black man who was kidnapped, beaten to a pulp and lynched by a racist gang in Mississippi in 1955, and his mother’s fight for justice.
Chinonye Chukwu’s film, written by her along with Michael Reilly and Keith Beauchamp is a heartfelt one. It is an important story that had major consequences for improvements in rights for black Americans and is particularly well performed by Danielle Deadwyler as Mamie, Emmett’s Mum. Frankie Faison and Whoopi Goldberg are also good as Mamie’s parents, as is John Douglas Thompson as the guilt ravaged man who owned the house that Emmett was taken from. It is a shame that Haley Bennett is wasted in an important but underwritten part as the woman who causes Emmett to be murdered.
This is a solid film, decently made, but a little pedestrian and unremarkable. I could not help wondering what someone like Spike Lee would have done with such potentially incendiary material.
Rating: 7 out of 10