Movie Review - Conviction (2011)

[Hondo]

I am not getting to as many DVDs as normal recently, but anyway ...

Hilary Swank stars in a movie based on a true story. In 1980 a woman in a small country town in the US was brutally stabbed to death. Seemingly without any other strong leads, a local female police office spends two years trying to mount a case against the town larrikin (Swank’s on screen brother called Kenny) played by Sam Rockwell.

The case against Kenny appears to be based mainly around testimony from two of his ex-girlfriends. Kenny is found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Fortunately for Kenny, the state in which the crime was committed did not have the death penalty. Swank’s character, convinced of his innocence, begins a law degree so she can ultimately be his lawyer and hopefully prove his innocence. I will leave it there to avoid spoilers.

I find Hilary Swank annoying in some movies and in this one she doesn’t quite convince me although she is pretty good. Sam Rockwell is very good as is the actor playing the arresting officer.

I found this movie to be entertaining and involving. When a story spans 18 years, inevitably some detail has to be left out or only covered at the surface level. I think the movie almost gets away with it however I felt one loose end in particular needed to be tied up, but wasn’t. Sam Rockwell’s character treads a fine line between us feeling sympathetic for him or us feeling he is pathetic but I think the real life equivalent might be the same. In the end, I wanted him to be proven innocent in spite of his flaws.

I give it 8/10.