Film

The true story on which American Violet is based is by turns appalling and uplifting. In Texas (as in many places), drug laws have been enforced with unusual vigor in communities of color. Prosecutors could count on poor black people to accept guilty pleas with shorter sentences rather than fight the charges in court. Add to that Texas’s policy (now retired) of prosecuting based on the word of a single informant, and the system was ripe for outrageous prosecutorial and police misconduct.

That’s where Dee Roberts (Beharie) comes in. Based on an actual woman named Regina Kelly, Roberts is arrested on the word of an informant and some bogus recording, and her court-appointed attorney urges her to take a deal without even asking if she’s guilty. But Dee is innocent, and she refuses to plead guilty no matter the cost.

Enter ACLU lawyer David Cohen (Nelson), who wants to use her arrest as a test case to bring about reform. He’s shrewd enough to know that a Northern civil-liberties lawyer (especially one named Cohen) will need local help, so he persuades reluctant local attorney Sam Conroy (Patton) to join the case. Disney delivers the appropriate moral outrage and glimmers of hope the story demands. No new ground is broken here, but you’ll get what you paid for.