Conviction

CONVICTION (15)

D: Tony Goldwyn

Fox Searchlight (Andrew Sugerman, Andrew Karsch & Tony Goldwyn)

USA 🇺🇸 2010

107 mins

Crime/Drama

W: Pamela Gray

DP: Adriano Goldman

Ed: Patrick Cassidy

Mus: Paul Cantelon

Hilary Swank (Betty Anne Waters), Sam Rockwell (Kenny Waters), Minnie Driver (Abra Rice), Melissa Leo (Nancy Taylor), Peter Gallagher (Barry Scheck), Juliette Lewis (Roseanna Perry)

A very impressive courtroom drama with top performances from Hilary Swank & Sam Rockwell.

Based on a true story, Swank plays a single mother who spends nearly 20 years of her life trying to get her incarcerated trailer trash brother (Rockwell) acquitted of a life sentence for murder which he is innocent of.

The ensemble cast are all on song, especially the two leads, but there's good support from Juliette Lewis (remember her), Minnie Driver, Peter Gallagher, Clea Duvall and Melissa Leo.

Directed by Tony Goldwyn, best known for his performance of Carl Bruner in Ghost. It's a rather low-key film and without the performances of Swank & Rockwell may have only been a TV movie.

I've yet to see Sam Rockwell deliver a bad acting performance and this must surely rank amongst his all-time best.

7/10

Hilary Swank & Sam Rockwell in Conviction