Review of Conviction (2010) by Diana T — 08 May 2011

Don't read if you don't like spoilers.

This was a gritty somewhat unpleasant plot with foul language, and a miserable series of events. I would say it was over acting. Hilary Swank had unpleasant expressions and seemed hard and humorless throughout.

The film showed the results of how a bad mother ruins her children's lives. The man grew up to be so aggravating to the police over his lifetime, that they pinned a murder on him. It sounded like he was safer in jail, and so was everyone else, even though he did not commit the murder. He died 6 months after his release from a fall off a 15 foot high walkway of some sort. The town had to pay his estate 3.5 million for his wrongful conviction.

Hilary's character got a college education and law school J.D. just to get her brother out of jail. She had no intention of actually practicing law. The whole plot was a disturbing one. The real killer was never found.

The moral of the story for me is that a mother who lets her children be shunted around from one foster home to another, has set her kids up for miserable lives. This was a tragedy. The kids had no supervision and were trespassing in people's homes. The police knew them well. They were angry children who grew up to be angry adults.

Hilary's character lost her husband and her own two boys while she was pursueing her college education. She did not have a "life" so to speak.