True stories are always hit and miss. Very easily falling into smaltz and cliché. Conviction not only sidesteps these, but also manages to make the story fun.

Betty Anne Waters (Hilary Swank), an unemployed, single mother of two boys, sees brother Kenneth (Sam Rockwell) begin serving a life sentence in 1983 for murder and robbery of a woman in Ayer, Massachusetts.

Kenneth runs out of public defenders and without a lawyer, is destined to die in prison. Betty Anne, convinced of her brother’s innocence, decides to become a lawyer – sacrificing everything else in the process. The love between Betty Anne and her brother is strong and beautiful. They come from a broken family and only have each other.

Hilary Swank is always a brilliant actress, but she also has the face of a movie star. Her bone structure and beauty make her easy to watch. Then there is Minnie Driver, always excellent, as her bolshy best friend. Accent right on the money.

Sam Rockwell is always good and Rockwell dancing to ‘My Sharona’ will probably stay with me forever. I have never seen him put in a bad performance and this is no exception. I really loved this movie. It is a good story on what happens when lies wreck lives and the justice system lets people down. Highly recommended as a film to go and see.

SPOILER ALERT

After spending 12 years studying, in 1995 with a law degree, she began focusing on her brother’s case. Using new, at the time, 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.

He only enjoyed six months of freedom. On September 19, 2001, he fell 15 feet off a wall, hit his head and died. The estate of the late Kenneth Waters settled a civil rights lawsuit against the town of Ayer for $3.4 million in 2009.