Rating of
2.5/4
A (kinda sorta) true story
patjohnson76 - wrote on 03/13/11
Conviction struggles with telling two stories - one of a strong bond between a brother and sister, and the other being the 20 year struggle of said sister trying to overturn said brother's murder conviction. Given all the time that has to be covered, both stories suffer somewhat, though Swank and Rockwell put in good performances as the Waters siblings. It's a little hard to buy the timeline, however, as Swank's character goes through 20 years without aging.
SPOILER! The biggest factor keeping it from getting to 3 stars, however, is the fact that this "true" story has major embellishments toward the end. The film makes a villain out of real-life Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley. The film would have you believe that despite DNA evidence, Coakley refused to release Waters for at least a year. In reality, he was released days after the DNA test came back - by Coakley. I'm not sure why the writers chose to throw up this final roadblock, the story is compelling enough and there's plenty of drama. Because of this, the film comes off as more manipulative than inspirational. There was no need to slander a real person's reputation for the sake of art.
