Conviction 2010

Warning: Spoilers ahead

This was a movie that didn't need to be made. It's designed to be a film about overcoming the odds and accomplishing something that everyone thought was nearly impossible. The problem is, there's no one to feel good for. Both the protagonists are more antagonistic and not in an anti-hero sort of way. They're just both incredibly unlikeable.

First, you have Sam Rockwell's character, who was wrongly convicted of having convicted a murder he didn't commit. The problem is, he's violent and wildly unpredictable. While witnesses against him may have lied about him having confessed to committing the crime at the behest of the district attorney and cops, it was evident that he was, at the very least, a domestic abuser. The movie also showed him assaulting a man in a bar. In other words, it was quite clear how he got caught up in all of this due to his previous interactions w/ the cops and his reputation around town. While that doesn't make what happened to him right, it also doesn't make him a decent human being worthy of having his story told.

The main character of the film is Hilary Swank's character, the sister of Sam Rockwell's character. She goes to law school specifically to be able to work on her brother's case. The problem here is that she is so single-minded, she essentially sacrifices her life and that of her family in order to see this through. And, anyone who offers a differing opinion than hers is met w/ an anger uncalled for given the precipitating factor. She operates on threats and intimidation, and while her end-goal might be admirable, her methodology leaves a lot to be desired.

There was one last thing that really struck me as odd and gave me an indication that even the filmmakers knew that they'd made a mistake in choosing this material. At the very end of the film, there's an epilogue that crawls the screen explaining a bit about the aftermath of the story. However, a glaring omission in this epilogue is the fact that the focus of this story, Sam Rockwell's character, died six months after being exonerated. By intentionally omitting this pertinent information, it leaves behind a feeling of disingenuousness. I have a feeling that had chosen to include it, viewers might have felt that the entire effort of Hilary Swank's character was all for naught, b/c he died so soon after being released from prison.

While the acting is really top-notch, it doesn't help the story in any meaningful way. There are a great number of real-life stories of wrongful incarceration that deserve attention more so than this particular story.