David O'ConnellConviction
February 21st 2011 04:00
The alleged authenticity of a story doesn’t necessarily translate into compelling drama for the big screen. In the case of director Tony Goldwyn’s latest project, a steady flow of fabrication may have spiced up what is a limp, impotent regurgitation of the sad lives of a brother and sister whose negotiation of a difficult childhood forged a bond that could never be broken.
On the surface of things, Conviction has the hallmarks of inspirational drama - just the kind of story that Hollywood loves to venerate and serve up to the masses with healthy dosages of sentimental excess attached. The reality here is something far less palatable - a paper-thin tale, spread unevenly over a span of two decades, in which years evaporate in the changing of reels. The taste it leaves in our mouths, finally, is that of the bitter irony of its title, for conviction is everything it lacks.
When Kenny Waters (Sam Rockwell) is indicted and then convicted for murder in small-town America, his loving sister Betty Anne (Hilary Swank), convinced of his innocence, decides to relegate the rest of her life into the background in order to prove that the authorities have incarcerated the wrong man. Her marriage falls apart, but it seems of little consequence as she scrounges enough money together to attend law school where she hopes to become a lawyer for one purpose only – to legally represent Kenny, dig deeper into the past and free him. Want to know how it ends? Give me a break.
Hilary Swank’s over-earnest performance is a major distraction, bloated with a misaligned sense of its own importance. She seems to be playing this with an eye on a third Oscar but Pamela Gray's severely malnourished screenplay makes a mockery of Swank's poorly judged estimation of this project’s worth.
Rockwell is mostly relegated to the background where his few appearances feel calculated and diluted by over-invested concentration on Swank and her phoney portrayal of working-class grit.
Melissa Leo, as the small-town cop who dislikes Henry from the start, and Minnie Driver as Betty Anne’s utterly clichéd best friend - a transparent altruist from the start - add annoying distractions for the negligible impact they make rather than contributing flesh-and-blood creations capable of altering the narrative in their own right in any surprising way. Juliette Lewis has only a couple of scenes as a repentant white-trash ex of Kenny's and she's responsible for what is probably the best scene in the film.
I'm actually a long-time fan of Goldwyn's work in front of the camera, including one of his most recent roles as the besieged father in the supremely disturbing Last House on the Left remake in 2009. But his three feature projects as director - since a noteworthy debut with the underrated and underseen A Walk on the Moon (1999) - have been unexceptional in every way.
Conviction (2010) is not an expressly poor film but it’s a painfully underwhelming one. Absent are the requisite twists, the intertwining of more complex subplots to fortify the central story which barely holds water as it is; deprived of any nuance it rings hollow, content to stimulate our most basic, vulnerable emotions in place of the intellect it's incapable of stirring. The paucity of intriguing elements and robotic motions that imitate some measly midday-movie template leave Conviction in no-man’s land. This film needed a far more compelling reason to exist.
Perhaps the story’s most interesting fact is totally omitted for the sake of preserving the tone of the ending. If we dig a little deeper ourselves we might be left with a fresh impression – of how a single bitter twist of fate can negate years of perserverance.
Conviction opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday, February 24.
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Comment by Matt Shea
Comment by David O'Connell
20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic
This isn't a horrible dud exactly but it really is thin in the plot department. I can offer absolutely zero love for Swank in this. Not a fan - unless she's playing a man.
Comment by Matt Shea