Wordiezett So much average

UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Megamind To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

SnoopyStyle Kenny Waters (Sam Rockwell) is convicted for the brutal 1980 murder of Katharina Brow in Ayer, Ma. His sister Betty Anne Waters (Hilary Swank) is a working mom who goes back to school to get a law degree and get his brother out of prison. Fellow older student Abra (Minnie Driver) befriends her. Sergeant Nancy Taylor (Melissa Leo) was the investigating officer. He was convicted by the testimonies of his ex-wife Brenda (Clea DuVall) and ex-girlfriend Roseanna (Juliette Lewis).This is a sincere true story. Director Tony Goldwyn tries to bring something powerful but I can't shake the feeling of a made-for-TV movie. It's not about the effort or the look. The movie rolls out very traditionally without any surprises. It's very functional but it's missing a big over-arching style. The extended flashback probably takes too much of the early momentum. The audience already knows about his conviction. Short bursts of flashbacks would be more compelling and allow the audience to question Betty Anne's resolve more. The most compelling drama is whether Kenny is actually guilty. Goldwyn isn't able to find the needed structure. The cast is some of the best around and they have a few big emotional moments. Rockwell is great once again. I just think Goldwyn could have done better.

aramo1 Usually I find myself agreeing with the general sway of view reviews here on IMDb but not in this case. This is all the more unusual as I am a fan of Law and Order type movies and (like most of the free world) left of center on the America penal system. Story line points aside Swank and Rockwell are very good and play off each other wonderfully in this film. So why am I not raving about this movie? Well for a start it makes an obvious effort to 'tell the facts' even if that kills momentum, it places the history it wants to record ahead of the drama. There are a few times during the movie when I found myself asking 'why did they bother telling me that?' when it was obvious the film makers wanted me to know something that had little to do with the story being told at that particular moment on screen. Later when reading around the story online the reasons became clearer. I do not know how much of the real story was lost in translation to screen play and I do not know how much was altered to suit individual family members. I do know that if you ignore the 'based on a true story' and simply view this as entertainment giving it 6 out of 10 is more than generous.

chrisbender In 1983, Kenny is convicted of the bloody murder of an elderly neighbor largely on the basis of testimony from two former girlfriends, both of whom claimed he confessed his actions to them. Neither Kenny nor Betty Anne can afford a good attorney, so she decides to become a lawyer even though she's a high school dropout. Also serving as one of the film's executive producers, Swank come back securely to the against-all-odds territory of Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" (2004) by following Betty Ann's sixteen-year journey from her GED through college, then law school, and finally passing the bar – all while she was raising two boys and working part-time at a local pub. The ending is predictable from a mile away, but the journey is not. The introduction of DNA evidence provides a linchpin that spins the story close to Lifetime-level dramatics, especially when Betty Ann solicits the assistance of the Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization devoted to overturning wrongful convictions. Gray's screenplay is solid enough, and Goldwyn's direction is assured within the back-and-forth treatment of the timeline.However, it's really the acting that is aces here. Beyond Swank's sterling work, Sam Rockwell brings an unpredictable furor and a surprising vulnerability to the showier role of Kenny. His rapport with Swank never feels forced, and the devotion of their sibling relationship is what really grounds the threat of hysterics in the film. The periphery is populated by a powerful squad of actresses turning in sharply etched work - Minnie Driver as Betty Ann's law-school friend Abra, whose comic spark highlights how pivotal her character is in representing the audience viewpoint; Melissa Leo ("Frozen River") as the malevolent arresting cop, whose secretive hostility provides the impetus for Kenny's conviction; Juliette Lewis as Kenny's dentally-challenged ex-girlfriend with a drunken confession scene that reveals the actress's long-forgotten raw talent below her usual giddiness; Karen Young in a brief scene as the unforgivable Mrs. Waters; and Ari Graynor ("Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist") as Kenny's embittered grown daughter. It's the cast's cumulative work that makes this movie intensely watchable.

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.