Chris L The story itself is pretty incredible, but the transcription that was made of it relatively conventional and perfectible. Some points are badly introduced and rushed whereas others could have deserved more consistency. The rhythm is also quite uneven with a few long passages.Even though, the beauty of the story and its extraordinary aspect compensate for those flaws. Hilary Swank is very good and did a great job with her "Boston" accent. Sam Rockwell is also very solid and, albeit not much on screen, shows undeniable presence in every of his scenes.All in all, Conviction is a pretty solid movie overall, but too consensual and conventional to make it an excellent feature.

dromasca Hilary Swank is an actress who has the internal strength and the talent to create a type of feminine characters feminist movies can be built around. Following 'Million Dollar Baby' and 'Amelia' now comes 'Conviction'. Again her hero is taking an unusual path, she will go with her feelings and against all odds, fight adversity and fight her condition as a woman to succeed in a career and reach a goal that seems unachievable. The danger is repetition, variants around the same subject and the same type of character are good only when they reinvent themselves and bring new points of view, new angles. This does not happen in 'Conviction' and not even the facts that the story is inspired by reality and the character she plays is taken from true life do not help. Nothing seems too real, the characters develop on expected paths, and the result is a film too long, I wish I had seen the documentary instead. Good acting from Swank and her supporting team does not make this movie take off.

Desertman84 Conviction is a film directed by Tony Goldwyn. It stars Hilary Swank as Betty Anne Waters and Sam Rockwell as her brother Kenneth "Kenny" Waters. It is is the inspirational true story of a sister's unwavering devotion to her brother. When Betty Anne Waters' older brother Kenny is arrested for murder and sentenced to life in 1983, Betty Anne, a Massachusetts wife and mother of two, dedicates her life to overturning the murder conviction. Convinced that her brother is innocent, Betty Anne puts herself through high school, college and, finally, law school in an 18 year quest to free Kenny. With the help of best friend Abra Rice, Betty Anne pores through suspicious evidence mounted by small town cop Nancy Taylor, meticulously retracing the steps that led to Kenny's arrest. Belief in her brother - and her quest for the truth - pushes Betty Anne and her team to uncover the facts and utilize DNA evidence with the hope of exonerating Kenny.In her study group, Betty Anne learns about the new field of DNA testing and realizes this could be the key to overturning Kenny's conviction. She contacts attorney Barry Scheck from the Innocence Project. The backlog of cases will mean waiting more than a year unless she can pass the bar and find the blood evidence from Kenny's trial herself to have it tested. At first she is stonewalled, then told the evidence was destroyed, but she refuses to give up, and she and her friend Abra embark on an odyssey to recover any evidence that might still be stored away somewhere. At the time of the trial, Kenny's blood type was shown to be identical to the killer's but DNA testing didn't exist. In the process, Betty Anne learns from an acquaintance who is now a police officer that Nancy Taylor was fired from the police department for fabricating evidence in another case. This deepens Betty Anne's suspicions about Kenny's conviction and the "evidence" given at trial. Finally the DNA results come back and establish that the blood was not Kenny's. Betty Anne and Kenny are overjoyed and think he is about to be released, after 16 years in prison, but Martha Coakley, of the District Attorney's office, refuses to vacate the conviction. They claim there was still enough evidence to convict Kenny as an accomplice, and Kenny is convinced that no matter what they do the authorities will find a way to keep him in prison to avoid admitting to a botched prosecution. Betty Anne is heartbroken but again refuses to give up.Betty Anne, Abra, and Barry Scheck visit the other two trial witnesses, Kenny's ex-wife and ex-girlfriend. Both tearfully admit that Sergeant Nancy Taylor coerced them into perjuring themselves at the trial in order to get a conviction. With an affidavit from Kenny's ex-wife and the DNA evidence, Kenny's conviction is vacated and he is freed from prison after 18 years in June 2001. Betty Anne is able to persuade his daughter, Mandy (Ari Graynor), who he had only known as a small child, that he never stopped trying to reach out to her while he was in prison despite his ex-wife's efforts to estrange them. He is able to reconnect with his daughter and is reunited with his sister, and her sons. The epilogue states that Betty Anne secured a large civil settlement from the City of Ayer for Kenny's wrongful conviction, but former Sergeant Nancy Taylor could not be charged with a crime because the statute of limitations had expired. Katharina Brow's real murderer has not been found.Less compelling -- and more manipulative -- than it should be, Conviction benefits from its compelling true story and a pair of solid performances from Swank and Rockwell.

moonspinner55 16 years after her brother was convicted of first degree murder, his sister, a divorced waitress with two kids, passes the bar exam and officially becomes her sibling's attorney, ready to take on the heel-dragging Massachusettes justice system and fully exonerate him at any cost. Well-produced, well-intentioned legal drama-cum-star vehicle (fashioned for its executive producer, Hilary Swank) has artificial spirit and courage, along with some puzzling and unanswered questions surrounding the gruesome killing in question. The victim, a German woman who was robbed, beaten, and stabbed in her own home, arouses no curiosity or sympathy from the filmmakers--this is strictly a showcase for the leading lady, who keeps flashing her thousand-watt smile. There are moving moments, along with excellent supporting performances from Minnie Driver, Melissa Leo, and Juliette Lewis; but accented Swank (attempting a nonchalant tour-de-force) appears to become a lawyer in the amount of time it takes most people to get through high school. Her character's hurdles are interesting--and the passage of time is neatly executed--but there are no real surprises here. The based-on-fact movie-formula seems ready to curdle. **1/2 from ****