Till ★★★½

THE true story of Mamie Till Mobley’s pursuit of justice over the murder of her son is likely more familiar to American than Australian audiences.

Till’s 14-year-old son Emmet was killed by a racist mob in 1955 while visiting his cousins in Mississippi. The smiling, outgoing teenager had the audacity to pay a white woman an ill-timed but innocent compliment related to her looks.

A white boy would have been told he was a cheeky little bugger and to run along. Emmet was dragged away in the middle of the night, beaten to a pulp and lynched, his body discarded in a river.

The murder followed two other lynchings of African-American men in the same State and became a lightning rod for the protest movement, the impetus for which is depicted in Till.

With the strong and defiant Till at the forefront, leading figures from the organised National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People challenged the legal process that ensured any chance of a conviction of the guilty was unlikely amongst a jury of their old, male and white peers.

Till not only put her own life on the line by going to Mississippi and testifying in court, she also inspired other local black residents to stand up for Emmet, their race and themselves.

It’s an important story about a formidable woman’s attempt to change how a nation thought and acted while trying to control and channel her own grief as a mother.

Danielle Deadwyler is just as formidable in the lead role and gives a rousing and heartfelt performance, but there are two misgivings that keep Till from achieving greatness overall as a film.

Firstly, director Chinonye Chukwu sometimes does not know when to hold back and give her actress and audience time to process what they have experienced.

At key moments of the film Deadwyler is forced to keep emoting before the camera for a touch too long, despite having given her all by that stage. Consequently it starts to push from believability into acting, no matter how great the performance.

Secondly, as strong as Emmet’s story is, there is a further wealth of material in Till’s struggle that could have been part of the film and wouldn’t have been at the expense of the court case which was unfortunately always going to be a foregone conclusion.

The story of Till and her Emmet is sometimes presented with too heavy a hand, but it’s still a vital one with important messages for all of us.