Writer-director Chinonye Chukwu deserves all kinds of acclaim for daring to tell a story about the death penalty through the eyes of one of its enactors — a prison warden, the kind of character that’s usually reduced to a one-dimensional villain on screen. And she also should get props for attracting high-caliber talent like Alfre Woodard and Wendell Pierce for only her second full-length feature. But despite those accomplishments, “Clemency” doesn’t quite resonate.
That’s mostly because “Clemency” doesn’t effectively investigate the conflict upon which its plot hinges. Warden Bernadine Williams (Woodard) is a woman who, by nature of her profession, follows the law unequivocally.