CONVICTION 3.5/4
Fox Searchlight Pictures, Rated R
In a case of truth stranger than fiction, Tony Goldwyn’s Conviction might seem ridiculously farfetched—if it weren’t all true.
A film revisiting the tragic two-decade incarceration of a Massachusetts man following a guilty verdict for a murder he didn’t commit, this devastating drama says a lot less about mistaken identity than a U.S. court system that, as with running for elections, tend to necessitate a hefty price tag and essentially closes its doors to those without money to afford justice. Not to mention that Walpole Prison lifer Kenny Waters, the second victim in the case in addition to the murdered woman, could have potentially been executed before DNA investigation procedures materialized decades later, since he was convicted (though receiving a life sentence without parole) prior to the abolition of the death penalty in Massachusetts in 1984.
Though far from a complete presentation of what transpired in this both terrible and infuriating instance of small town police corruption, Conviction didn’t need to lay out the entire case to make its point. Hilary Swank lives and breathes with a singular fury and passion the role of real life superhero Betty Anne Waters, an Ayer, Mass. high school dropout who grew up in a broken family and series of foster homes. When her wayward brother Kenny (Sam Rockwell) is arrested and convicted in 1983 in the murder of the woman responsible for filing a complaint against him as a teen that sent him to reform school, Betty Anne resolves to do everything in her power to free him.
And after she encounters a legal system that ranges from skeptical to indifferent when it comes to defendants with no money, the uneducated working-class barmaid and struggling single mom sees no recourse but to take on the burden of becoming a lawyer herself. She does this by working her way through the intricate web of the criminal justice system, spending the next 18 years acquiring high school, college and law degrees.
Coming up against multiple dead ends, Betty Anne embarks on her own criminal investigation, confronting hurdles that include presumably trashed evidence, pressured witnesses and an unlikable, volatile defendant with a bad reputation to begin with but who is certainly not a murderer. She’s pushed by her persisting best friend and colleague Abra Rice (Minnie Driver) until years later, when Barry Scheck’s DNA project surfaces, freeing countless lifers and death row inmates along with Kenny.
Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell star in Conviction
A thoroughly disturbing and stunningly conceived legal thriller, Conviction does have its weak points while making its case. Exhibit A: the determination of local police officer Nancy Taylor (Melissa Leo), obsessed with sending Kenny to prison even if she has to twist a couple of testifying witnesses’ arms to do so. Her own motivations remain unclear, as does the out-of-court condemnation of the Waters’ mom, herself an overwhelmed single mother without a community support system. These two women kick in as mysterious caricatures, seemingly to avoid giving any impression the film may weigh in on the feminist side. Then there’s Hollywood tampering with the evidence, failing to mention Kenny died six months after his release by fracturing his skull in a freak accident, all in the name of a happy and uplifting ending.
Interview: Sam Rockwell
