Starring: Hilary Swank, Sam Rockwell, Minnie Driver, Melissa Leo, Peter Gallagher, Conor Donovan, Owen Campbell, Ari Graynor, Loren Dean, Clea DuVall, and Juliette Lewis
Directed By: Tony Goldwyn
Written By: Pamela Gray
Produced By: Andrew Sugerman, Andrew S. Karsch, and Tony Goldwyn
Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Rated: R (for language and some violent images)
Running Time: Approximately 107 minutes
Website: foxsearchlight.com/conviction
Budget: $18 million
Genre: Docudrama
Release Date: October 29, 2010
Celebrated British writer Rudyard Kipling (The Jungle Book) once stated, “A woman’s guess is much more accurate than a man’s certainty.”
It would be interesting to get Kipling’s take on Betty Anne Waters, a real-life, working-class mother of two from Massachusetts who put herself through law school and tirelessly crusaded for 18 years to exonerate her brother, Kenneth “Kenny” Waters, following his conviction (in 1983) of the brutal 1980 murder and armed robbery of Katharina Brow, a neighbor of his in the town of Ayer, Massachusetts.
Betty Anne’s certainty of Kenny’s innocence is at the heart of the new docudrama, Conviction, starring Academy Award winner Hilary Swank (Boys Don’t Cry, Million Dollar Baby) and Sam Rockwell (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Moon) as Betty Anne Waters and Kenny Waters, respectively. Working from a decent, by-the-numbers script written by Pamela Gray (Music of the Heart, A Walk on the Moon) that incorporates flashbacks to key moments in this compelling real-life story, Swank rebounds quite admirably from her troublesome turn as celebrated American aviatrix Amelia Earhart in last year’s equally troublesome, yet visually-splendid big screen biopic Amelia.
Back to playing the type of role that falls squarely within her strengths as an actor (in this case, an ordinary woman in an extraordinary situation with something to prove), Swank sidesteps any attempt to paint Betty Anne as some sort of martyr, to which a lesser actress may have gladly fallen prey. She brings an appealing mix of dexterity, steeliness, and vulnerability to the part, making Betty Anne’s transformation from a married, blue collar waitress with kids to licensed legal eagle totally believable.
Though as good as Swank is, it’s Rockwell, a well-known character actor who has been on the cusp of breaking out for years, who makes Conviction truly worth seeing. Following his memorable turns as game show host Chuck Barris in actor George Clooney’s Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and as a burnt-out astronaut facing one doozy of a metaphysical quandary in writer-director Duncan Jones’ Moon, his magnetic performance here as Betty Anne’s roguish, yet utterly charming older brother should snag him that long-overdue Oscar nomination. This year’s supporting actor race is shaping up to be the most competitive since the ‘92 and ’93 Oscar matches.
Love him or hate him, Rockwell is the sort of actor who makes interesting choices even when he’s miscast. With a mischievous glint in his eye, Rockwell humanizes a hellion from way back, gradually stripping away the artifice and showing us his real essence. Make no mistake about it, Kenny was no angel, and the film makes no mention of an earlier attempted murder charge he was levied with. However, there are moments where you find yourself questioning whether he was capable of such a heinous crime and if Betty Anne’s unyielding faith in him and his innocence was entirely warranted. That lingering ambiguity adds a certain pulse to the film, but it’s pretty obvious what side the filmmakers’ allegiance is with.
Actor-turned-filmmaker Tony Goldwyn (A Walk on the Moon, Someone Like You, The Last Kiss) keeps the emphasis on the actors and the story, and elicits some great work from Oscar nominees Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting) as Betty Anne’s law school confidant, Melissa Leo (Frozen River) as the sketchy local female cop who was the driving force behind Kenny’s eventual conviction, and a nearly-unrecognizable Juliette Lewis (Natural Born Killers) who is mesmerizing in two scenes as a former girlfriend of Kenny’s who proved to be instrumental to the prosecution’s case. And Peter Gallagher is terrific as Barry Scheck, an attorney and the co-founder of the Innocence Project, a group that has helped free over 200 wrongfully convicted individuals using DNA evidence.
Grade: 3.5 stars (out of 5)
