Kenny Waters (Sam Rockwell: Moon, The Green Mile) was a fun-loving guy who tended to get into trouble on a whim's notice, but not like the fateful day when he was accused of murder in the first degree. The film's take on this true-to-life story follows the journey of Betty Anne (Hillary Swank: Amelia, Million Dollar Baby), but also references nice flashbacks to give a bit of back story on the relationship that she and her brother had. This bond would be tested to the fullest after Kenny's murder conviction pushes Betty Anne to not only sacrifice life and family to get her law degree, but eventually take on her brother's case after appeals fail. With the help of well-known attorney Barry Scheck (Peter Gallagher: TV's The O.C., American Beauty), she is in a life-or-death struggle to free her brother.
The efforts Betty Anne goes through to get the Conviction repealed because she has complete faith of her brother's innocence is extraordinary, and the film does a great job of condensing a long time period into under two hours, holding the viewer's interest the whole way. Because the time of the conviction happened before there was such a thing as DNA evidence, once this technology emerged, it was a key hope in freeing Kenny. Unfortunately, Betty Anne didn't have a lot of success locating anything from that fateful day in the past. Despite constantly being turned away from law officers that the blood-soaked evidence had been destroyed years earlier, Betty Anne never gives up her fight for justice.
Hillary Swank does a fine job of playing the part of attorney Betty Anne Waters, and I definitely enjoyed her in this non-fictional role more than when she played Amelia Earhart. Swank had a more natural feel about her, and played very well off of Sam Rockwell's Kenny. Rockwell also nailed the part, and even though he is the exact opposite in stature of Kenny Waters in life, the real Betty Anne even remarked in the Bonus Featurette how much she felt Kenny in Rockwell's performance.
Other supporting actor appearances are brought out by Peter Gallagher, who plays a similar staunch role as in many of his films, and both Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting) and Juliette Lewis (Natural Born Killers). Driver plays the friend of Betty Anne and Lewis plays the part of witness as she testifies to put Kenny Waters behind bars.
Conviction is the type of movie that has a courtroom drama feel, but the majority of the film takes place outside the walls of the courthouse. In fact, the movie tends to bounce around a bit, but not in a disorienting way like some films do. The story is quite good and definitely worth the time to view. Sam Rockwell once again does an outstanding acting job in his role as Kenny Waters and deserves his dues. The Blu-ray's audio and visuals are outstanding, but unfortunately it is lacking in special features. The one Featurette that is present does indeed help shed even more light on the situation than the movie fully covers as you get to hear from Betty Anne Waters herself. Without giving away the outcome, Conviction should be rented by anyone looking for a good true-story drama, but it may not necessarily be a film that you'll watch time and again.
