In "Just Mercy," Michael B. Jordan brings dignity to the story of a real-life Atticus Finch

Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative — an organization dedicated to “fighting for the poor who need it most” — is a notable humanitarian. Stevenson and his efforts get the big Hollywood treatment in “Just Mercy,” director/co-writer Destin Daniel Cretton’s slick, earnest legal drama about the civil rights defense attorney. Fresh out of Harvard Law School, Stevenson moves to Alabama against his mother’s wishes, and takes on the case of Walter “Johnny D.” McMillian, a black man sentenced to death row for a crime he did not commit. When Stevenson meets with McMillian, the death row inmate says, “No one has been freed from Alabama’s death row... What makes you think you’re going to change that?” And so, Stevenson redoubles his efforts to achieve justice for his client.. “Just Mercy” features a handful of scenes of Stevenson speechifying about why he is doing this magnanimous work. As he digs deeper into McMillian’s case, Stevenson finds that the prosecution’s sole witness is a criminal, Ralph Myers, who was coerced to give false statements perhaps in exchange for a lesser sentence.