When American movies deal with real everyday heroes as in the case of Myra Breckenridge they often have difficultly in knowing how much drama and emotion to give the characters. With Conviction they almost get it right, even to the point of making the
Conviction
Directed by Tony Goldwyn
Rialto Cinemas
When American movies deal with real everyday heroes as in the case of Myra Breckenridge they often have difficultly in knowing how much drama and emotion to give the characters. With Conviction they almost get it right, even to the point of making the heroine slightly boring.
The film tells the real life story of how Betty Ann Waters (Hilary Swank), an unemployed single mother whose brother Kenneth “Muddy” Waters (Sam Rockwell) is given a life sentence in 1983 for allegedly murdering a woman living in a house next door to him in Ayer, Massachusetts.
After several appeals against his conviction have failed he becomes resigned to dying in prison. That is when sister Betty Anne decides to dedicate her life to save her brother. Convinced that he was innocent, she spends the next 12 years taking steps to earn a law degree.
In 1995, with a law degree in hand, she began focusing on her brother's case. Her discovery about the way that of DNA evidence could be used to overturn the conviction provides the crucial turning point, along with gaining the assistance of the Innocence Project, a non-profit organization devoted to overturning wrongful convictions.
Pamela Gray's screenplay is solid enough and Goldwyn's direction is assured within the back-and-forth treatment of the timeline eventually challenging the conviction with DNA evidence, with the help of the Innocence Project, she proved her brother's innocence, and Kenneth Waters walked out a free man in March 2001 after 18 years in prison.
One of the disappointing aspects of the film is the relatively limited focus on the nature of DNA testing and its importance in securing the release of hundreds of people who had been serving long prison sentences.
The absence of this forensic element weakens the films dramatic build up and conclusion as well as losing the opportunity to explain the legal and scientific importance of the process and procedures.
The script is fairly pedestrian and the direction is leisurely ,not going in for too much in the way of dramatics. However, as a study of dedication, in the case of Hilary Swank and of resignation on the part of Sam Rockwell, the film is brilliantly realised. As Kenneth becomes more and more depressed and institutionalised, even to the point of giving up any thought of release, Betty Ann becomes more eager, earnest and fascinating.
Kenneth Waters only enjoyed six months of freedom, because on September 19, 2001, he fell 15ft off a wall hitting his head and died. The estate of the late Kenneth Waters settled a civil rights lawsuit against the town of Ayer's for $3.4 million in 2009.
