An innocent man goes to prison. It takes his selfless sister 18 years of single-minded dedication to exonerate him. Telling an unbelievably harrowing true story, “Conviction” would never have worked as pure fiction.
Part sibling love story, part justice system expose and part empowerment drama, this effective piece is dependent on the facts of a compelling real-life travesty and the quiet heroics it inspired. Without that context, despite two potent anchoring performances by Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell, it would have seemed more boilerplate.
Tony Goldwyn directs from a script by Pamela Gray. The team previously collaborated on “A Walk on the Moon,” 1999’s Diane Lane romance about a mother struggling for fulfillment and identity. Goldwyn and Gray’s proven ability to draw passionate relationships infuses “Conviction,” keeping the legal procedural plot line from overwhelming the human element.
Swank brings the emotional intensity and working-class authenticity from her best previous work (“Boys Don’t Cry,” “Million Dollar Baby”) to the role of humble Massachusetts bartender Betty Anne Waters. After surviving a traumatic childhood through their devotion for each other, Waters feels driven to come to her brother’s rescue — sure from the start that he has been railroaded for a grisly felony.
Kenny is an ex-con with the personality of a gentle clown, as loyal and likable as he is volatile. Rockwell captures these various dimensions so well that the audience roots for Kenny even as we have doubts about his innocence.
But not Betty. She sacrifices her marriage, and puts her children and her own needs on the back burner for an unbelievable journey. Expressly in order to find some way to clear Kenny, she spends almost two decades as a part-time student to earn her GED and then undergraduate and law school degrees. It is a testimony to the power of faith and serendipity that she emerged with the right education just as the use of DNA evidence was gaining broad acceptance.
A serviceable supporting cast includes Minnie Driver as Betty’s best friend; Melissa Leo as the corrupt cop behind Kenny’s false arrest; Juliette Lewis as trailer trash pivotal to the case; and, Peter Gallagher as Barry Scheck, the famous O.J. Simpson attorney who became a DNA crusader with his nonprofit Innocence Project.
Strangely, the movie’s epilogue neglects to recount the actual tragic conclusion of the Waters’ family saga after Kenny’s release. But it still doesn’t take away from Betty’s inspiring “Conviction.”
