![]() ![]() For her part, Mercy also has a big character arc, although much of it remains off-screen.īoth actresses are excellent, digging deep to express their characters' darker feelings, frustrations and connections. Instead, the focus is on Lucy's rather wrenching internal journey as she confronts doubts about her father's innocence and growing feelings toward this new friend. This also means that the film never puts the spotlight on the central thematic controversy. In this way, the film reveals telling details as the character open up to each other, which makes scenes feel unusually intimate. Shalom-Ezer takes a strikingly relaxed approach to the story, letting each scene unfold in an organic way. Meanwhile, the family lawyer (Geraghty) has one last chance to save Lucy's dad. Then as they get to know each other, both are surprised to find that they're falling in love. At one execution, Lucy makes an unexpected connection with Mercy (Mara), an activist on the other side of the issue. And they have good reason: their father (Koteas) is on death row, and they believe he's innocent. ![]() And while the narrative itself is a bit predictable, the character complexity more than makes up for it.įrom their home in Ohio, Lucy (Page), her older sister Martha (Seimetz) and their young brother Ben (Shotwell) drive from prison to prison protesting the death penalty. As directed by Tali Shalom-Ezer, scenes are so raw that they continually take the audience aback. “It’s that mixture of being proud to have queer characters, being proud to tell queer stories, but not wanting your film defined that way, and having this sort of narrow idea of it, when I think it’s very similar to traditional American narrative, in terms of a character dealing with very severe obstacles-repression, profound grief-and then having love enter her world, and that expanding her.Despite having a hugely contentious issue at the heart of its plot, this film remains remarkably centred on its characters, all of whom are played with an earthy authenticity that often feels improvised. In most movies, it’s a narrative with a love story, and this just happens to be a same-sex story,” Page reflects. “We have, like most movies, these narratives that parallel each other. I think that to label it a ‘gay movie’ is the way that, as a female writer-director, I always try to get away from people saying, ‘It’s a female movie.’ I think that’s ostracizing in some way.”ĭiscussing the film, Page continued this conversation, examining the difference between celebrating projects with queer characters and trying to place such projects in a box. “Whether they’re gay or straight, the humanness of the story is the most important thing. “I think the most interesting thing to me about the film, personally, is that doesn’t see it as an issue-driven thing, but I think the most important thing, and something I strive for in my work as a writer and director, as well, is creating full characters, and they just happen to be gay,” Seimetz says. Starring Page as the daughter of a man on death row who falls in love with a woman (Mara) on the opposing side of her family’s political cause, the film isn’t issue-driven, or a “gay film”-rather, it’s a compassionate, nuanced human drama about characters who happen to share the same sex, the sort of story that is needed in times of extreme political division. “ just really wanted to work together, so we thought, We’re not necessarily being sent any offer right this second to work together, so let’s just make it happen on our own, and producing seemed like the obvious way of making that happen quickly.” “The script had been around eight years the movie wasn’t really necessarily going to get made,” Mara explains. ![]() Ellen Page & Kate Mara Share An Undeniable Attraction In 'My Days Of Mercy' Clip - Toronto ![]()
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