Mercy
- Ben Pivoz
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
The elevator pitch for the sci-fi thriller Mercy is Minority Report meets Searching. It is set in the future, with a justice system controlled by artificial intelligence. The accused has the entire internet at their disposal and ninety minutes to use it to prove their innocence, or be executed. A story like this has to be tight to work. Limited setup, the bare minimum of exposition, just establish the premise, give only as much backstory as absolutely necessary, then let the natural tension carry the audience along. Mercy misses out on that first part.
There is way too much explaining in the first half: how the system works, why it was created, who this guy is, how he got to the point where he is the obvious suspect, etc. It takes a while before the writing gets out of the way and allows the plot to take over. Once that happens, it is pretty decent. The mystery aspect is underwhelming; I guessed the culprit very early on. However, the challenge of solving a crime, exonerating yourself and catching a killer, all while strapped to a chair with a ticking clock on your life, makes for some effective suspense. It is not a good movie, though it certainly isn’t the disaster I was expecting, either. It is about two-thirds of a serviceable thriller. That’s not bad for January.
Chris, a police officer, wakes up in a room containing nothing but the chair he is tied to and is informed that he is on trial for the murder of his wife. He now has exactly an hour and a half to convince the AI-operated Mercy criminal justice system, presided over by a program called Judge Maddox, that he is innocent by using anything and everything connected to the cloud to uncover the truth.
Mercy (92 minutes, without the end credits) is a race against the clock movie that is a little bit longer than the time limit its protagonist is faced with. It cheats somewhat with its time, drawing things out to create tension. It still doesn’t overstay its welcome. Director Timur Bekmambetov generates a sense of pace in a story that takes place almost entirely in one room, with a star that can’t move. He throws as much as he can at the viewer, creating a sense of urgency, practically out of thin air. He and writer Marco van Belle do a good job of making this move fast enough that the audience doesn’t have a chance to react to the silly plot twists. The next one comes too quickly.
The star is Chris Pratt, who is, quite frankly, not a versatile actor. He can do goofy action hero, as seen in Guardians of the Galaxy and, to a lesser extent, Jurassic World. He can’t do serious action hero. He doesn’t have the range for it. Here he plays a guy who needs to grieve his wife, show remorse for how his alcoholism has hurt his loved ones and be a brilliant detective, all at the same time and all without getting up. He is a big enough name that the casting is smart from a commercial perspective. He just can’t convincingly command the screen the way the role demands. That definitely holds Mercy back.
With the ongoing debate about the potential (both positive and negative) of AI, this is a timely premise. Unfortunately, Mercy doesn’t commit to either side of the argument. Without giving anything away, it seems to be pro-AI in the way it allows us to connect with the rest of the world in an instant. It seems to be anti-AI due to its lack of emotion. Neither of these things are at the heart of the issue and neither of them are handled in a way that makes it feel like anyone involved in this movie actually cares. This is supposed to be a non-stop, wild, twisty, thrill ride; not social commentary. It is okay enough at what it is trying to do, though you won’t be missing much if you skip it.
2¾ out of 5
Cast:
Chris Pratt as Chris Raven
Rebecca Ferguson as Judge Maddox
Kali Reis as Jacqueline Diallo
Kylie Rogers as Britt Raven
Chris Sullivan as Rob Nelson
Directed by Timur Bekmambetov
Written by Marco van Belle
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