Conviciton (2010– 107 mins) H.Swank,  S. Rockwell, M. Driver

Conviction is the true story of a single mother,Betty Anne Waters (Swank) who goes to law school in order to take up the cause of proving her brother innocent of a murder he was convicted of committing. It’s based on a true story so it certainly has a sense of heart warming truth to it. However, and I am not sure if it’s b/c of how it all went down in real life or flaws in the screen play/direction but I had some problems with the story/film, of which I will get to in a few moments. First a bit more on the story. Sam Rockwell plays Kenny Waters, the man accused and convicted of the brutal murder of a woman. Kenny is not a saint by any streatch, he has some history of troubles with the law and generally isn’t a great person. The movie shows this pretty well, but what it shows more is how close the siblings are to one another. A credit to the filmakes are that the movie doesn’t center on the trial, or how he got convicted as much, nor does it center too much on the getting Swank’s character through law school. What it does center on is the relationship of Betty Anne and Kenny. How they have always been amazingly close and have always taken up for one another in life. Rockwell does an amazing job of portraying Kenny’s state of mind during the years after the conviction. The personification of the emotional roller coaster ride he went on. From the highs and the lows to the point of almost giving up, Rockwell shows this with excellence.

There are two things I didn’t like about the portayal of Kenny by the movie though. First, we never once hear him say he is innocent. I kept waiting for the constant proclamation of his innocense. If I was thrown in jail for ANYTHING I didn’t do, let alone a murder, I would let everyone I knew know constantly “I didn’t do it!” The other thing I didn’t like, is they over do the fact that Kenny is just completely unlikeable. We just can’t 100% get onboard behind him because it is beat into our heads that he is a failry despicable person. The 2nd part I can deal with. Some people just aren’t all that likeable, no matter how innocent they may be they still might not be 100% likeable. Sure no prob, BUT, what I cannot deal with is the non-declaration of innocense. So wheather this is b/c the director/screen writers left it out by accident or if they were just trying to leave some semblence of doubt in our minds, I still view this as a big flaw in the story. Yet, I did find the movie entertaining, and likeable and think it’s a good story, up there with the heart warming tales like “Erin Brockovich” without the corney love story thrown in for effect.

Verdict—> A good movie that I think most people will like, even with a few movie making, or plot flaws. It’s very well acted and you just can’t help but like a good true to life story with a heart-warming touch and ending. Pick it up when you can. It’s not a courtroom drama

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