Showing @ Cineworld now

Tony Goldwyn/USA 2010/107 min

Wrongly convicted prisoners remain behind bars for countless years at the whim of some faulty eye-witness or aspiring detective desperate to place the blame. We’ll never know how many people are screwed by the system but since it was established 259 people have been exonerated by the Innocence Project using DNA evidence over the usually circumstantial and flimsy testimonies that are somehow strong enough to condemn people for life. Based on a true story Conviction follows one of the men who was chewed up by the criminal justice system: in 1983 Kenny Waters (Sam Rockwell) was sentenced to life in prison on the charge of manslaughter.

Living in Ayer, Massachusetts, Waters and his sister Betty Anne (Hilary Swank) experienced a troubled childhood plagued by foster homes. Acting as the typical hillbilly type, Kenny gets into brawls with men in bars and eventually ends up on the wrong side of police woman Nancy Taylor (Melissa Leo) and his life in jail begins. Sure of his innocence and bound by their past, Betty Anne juggles her two sons and a bar job whilst working her way through law school in an attempt to prove his innocence, after  eventually discovering what should be standard practice in convictions: DNA evidence.

Carefully adapted from the real Betty Anne’s story, Pamela Gray’s script is directed with sympathy and grace by Tony Goldwyn allowing Conviction to grow from a slightly predictable tale into one that only reality could create. With gentle camera work and well drawn out characters, Swank and Rockwell produce venerable performances. Their bond is unquestionable and Betty Anne’s obliviousness to her own ferocious drive only comes into question when her sons point out that she’s given up her life for Kenny, the look of confusion on Swank’s face as she registers for the first time that other siblings might not behave in the same way is one that defines her. The sad truth is that after eighteen years of struggle and Kenny’s final release, he died within six months from a fall. Almost half his life was spent in jail for a crime he didn’t commit and without Betty Anne’s own conviction and belief he would have died there. The way the justice system repeatedly fails to protect the innocent and yet ignores white collar atrocities is something that must be addressed. There is no easy answer and Conviction doesn’t try to rouse anger or present unnecessary obstacles, it’s just telling a story about one of the lucky ones.