Review of Conviction (2010) by Florian S — 23 Mar 2011

An extraordinary journey of how far we go to fight for our family ... and the love connected with it. - The journey or even the film seems in fact really long. The incredible true story of Betty Anne Waters was one of the critic's subtitles. Well, the real events are certainly amazing, but not the actor's performances which is also the reason for giving no single award this year. Of course, the movie was shown on several International Film Festivals as Toronto or London, but a top cast is not good enough to "convince" the audience. Former actor Tony Goldwyn unites an incredible leading cast on screen by two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank, Peter Gallagher ("The O.C.") and Academy Award nominee Juliette Lewis ("Cape Fear"). Academy Award nominee Minnie Driver ("Good Will Hunting") and Oscar winner Melissa Leo ("The Fighter") star in supporting roles. The hairstyles in the movie are horrible, especially Minnie Driver's wild curly look with blonde highlights and Clea DuVall's retro look from the eighties. The characters seem to have much similarity with the original persons. Sam Rockwell is the ideal guy to play the weird and stunning part of Kenny. He prooved once in past that this type of role fits to him (1999's "The Green Mile").

In general, the emotions are a bit missing, compareable to last year's "Extraordinary Measures". The loose narrating way is not suitable, I would have preferred events narrated chronologically without many flashbacks to teenage time and maturehood. Only at the end, there is a concrete reference to the present. The movie was produced by a low budget producer (Tobis) and various independent companies, even Hilary Swank was executive producer of the film, too. Sometimes, the score sounds like the one by Gustavo Santaolalla which would have been perfect to underline the atmosphere of "Conviction". Fortunately, the film has a happy ending.