Review

Review Date: 24-October-10
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Juicy

Conviction (2010)

Before reviewing Conviction I went back and read what I wrote about Call Northside 777 (1948). Both films describe how a man convicted of murder was proved innocent after many years in prison. Both are based on real-life cases. By their very nature, both elicit mixed reactions of horror and triumph and make for engrossing entertainment. Yet Conviction has an especially sensational aspect which, fortunately, is given understated treatment by its screenwriter (Pamela Gray), director (Tony Goldwyn), and star (Hilary Swank).

In another strong performance as a courageous underdog, Swank plays Betty Anne Waters, a blue-collar Massachusetts woman who devoted a large chunk of her life to what can only be called an obsession. After her brother Kenny (Sam Rockwell) is found guilty of murder in 1983, Betty Anne sets out on the long road towards freeing him. She earns her GED, puts herself through college, and enters law school, concurrently working at a pub and attempting, with various degrees of success, to maintain a marriage and raise two sons. Fifteen years into the ordeal, she passes the bar and pins her hopes on the relatively new science of DNA analysis. If the blood evidence from Kenny's trial still exists where she can find it, she can prove that he was unjustly sentenced … after wading through red tape, since no court likes to recognize failure in the legal system. All this time, Kenny suffers behind bars.

One has to think that few people would go to such lengths even for a sibling, and Conviction does not shy from the fact that Betty Anne sacrifices personal satisfactions to fraternal concern. Yet the movie shows why her life is so wrapped up in her brother's. Indifferently raised by an unfit mother and a succession of foster parents, Betty Anne and Kenny grew up regarding each other as the sole source of comfort in the world. She understands the recklessness and fits of violence that made him a favorite target of the police when they were young, and, knowing the contours of his anger, never doubts his innocence. Although there are some awkward shifts between the siblings' past and present lives, the picture that emerges explains the heroine's devotion. That Kenny lost and regained his life is remarkable. That Betty Anne fought for almost 20 years to accomplish this is one hell of a human-interest story.

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