Conviction

{4.5/5} “People don’t like to admit that they made a mistake.”

Betty Anne works as a waitress but she’s also back at school studying law. Her brother Kenny was convicted of murder but she believes he’s innocent and she’s the only one who can help him. Betty Anne and Kenny have had a difficult life but they’ve always been there for each other. Kenny doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life in jail so he tried to kill himself, which makes Betty Anne even more desperate.

Conviction was released in 2010. It’s based on a true story.

Sometimes when I watch a movie from a few years ago I wonder why it didn’t make more of a splash at the time — this is one of those movies.

There are a bunch of flashbacks to when Betty Anne and Kenny were children and to when Kenny was first convicted.

While Betty Anne is in law school, DNA testing is introduced — she thinks this will get Kenny’s conviction overturned.

Some details were likely changed but the basic story happened in real life, and it’s worth watching. The performances from Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell are outstanding.

The gentle music is by Paul Cantelon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly).

Hilary Swank (Freedom Writers) plays Betty Anne and Sam Rockwell (Everybody’s Fine) plays Kenny.

Minnie Driver (Grosse Pointe Blank) plays a classmate of Betty Anne’s and Bailee Madison (Bridge to Terabithia) plays Betty Anne as a young girl.

The movie was directed by Tony Goldwyn (The Last Kiss).

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 27th, 2013 at 6:51 pm and is filed under Reviews of movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a Reply