"Conviction" Review: Hilary Swank Comes Out On Top

Hilary Swank, right, and Minnie Driver are shown in a scene from, "Conviction." (AP Photo/Fox Searchlight Pictures, Ron Batzdorff)

NEW YORK (CBS) Hilary Swank finds herself in familiar territory in "Conviction," playing a single mother and high school dropout, who puts herself through law school to overturn her brother's wrongful murder conviction.

Playing a working-class underdog puts Hilary Swank in her comfort zone. It's a niche that has served her well, winning her two Oscars thus far ("Million Dollar Baby", "Boys Don't Cry").

Pictures: Hilary Swank
Review: "RED"

In "Conviction," which is based on a true story, Swank turns in a first-rate, steely, determined performance as Betty Anne Waters, a Massachusetts waitress , who struggles for 18 years to vindicate her incarcerated brother, Kenneth (Sam Rockwell) , of a crime he did not commit back in the early 1980's. Her character is convinced her brother,  a well known town rabblerouser, did not receive a fair trial, because of his troubled past.

Fueled by reports of old cases reversed by DNA evidence, she risks everything, including the good will of her family, to try to prove Kenneth's innocence. She works relentlessly to uncover evidence that through DNA testing (that didn't exist at the time of the original trial) might exonerate Kenneth.

Swank, who also serves as the executive producer, turns in an intense, potentially award-worthy performance, in an uplifting story, that will have you dabbing at the corner of your eye on more than one occasion. She manages to effectively capture the sheer, dogged determination of one single woman and the impact she had - very much in the same vein as "Erin Brokovich" did. Sam Rockwell, Juliette Lewis as Kenneth's ex-girlfriend, and Minnie Driver as Swank's witty, classmate and friend, are well cast and turn in strong performances.

Where the film loses some luster is in the lack of depth in exploring Swank's relationship with her husband and family. Director Tony Goldwyn seems content with the somewhat sketchy, cliched at times, script screenwriter Pamela Gray uses to portray Waters.

One wonders what other, deeper tensions existed between her and her husband and sons before her life became consumed with proving her brother's innocence. What was it in her own DNA and upbringing that made her willing to sacrifice everything for the special bond she shared with her brother - one of eight siblings she had? Also interesting,was the decision not to highlight the fact that Kenneth Waters died just six short months after his sister's life-long struggle to see justice served. Something, no doubt, that would have deflected from the film's attempt to be the "feel good" movie of the year.

Something else that will cause some deflection is the fact that the real-life family members of the murder victim portrayed in the movie have lashed out at Swank and the film's producers, questioning their ethics for not consulting the family over the events surrounding the death of their mother, Katharina Brow. Through their high-profile attorney, Gloria Allred, Melrose and Charlie Brow are questioning how their mother will be portrayed in the film.

No doubt this real-life drama will present an added dimension to already charged performances in a film that will undoubtedly make Oscar stand up and take note.

[libertybell13139]

bottom teeth and didn't remember it ,but i already had filed charges and dropped them when they all took me to police station to do so.and no i never had short brown hair it has been blonde jewlette lewis should have meant with me before she played me i never had rotten teeth and was always well dressed .i was a people person who got in with a real bad crowd .what they r doing to make us all live that nitemare time all over again shame on her ,but money counts at any cost to them .people should look up kenny waters real girlfriend brenda marsh were he beat her repeatedly and also hung her out a window i just feel awful for her child who had to see this.and yes i lied to her lawyer who she bought me too and tried to bribe me with dollars to not testify.and a trip to boot.and once i went in court i was called a hostile witness because i didnt say what their lawyer wanted to hear me say i told the truth .its called survial.i only had half of them living on the same street and in the neighbor hood .and i can tell you this it was terrifying for me ,i wont even go into the things that wer e done ,my poor edler mom couldn't take it ,and had to stay somewhere else at the time.my poor daughter was beaten after school because of me being a so called rat.i guess you can make a lot of friends living in the projects,i could go on and on .does it show in the movie were they asked me to point him out????....ill bet not because i couldn't he didn't have blonde at fro hair and was at least s50 pounds ,the man before me had short straight hair brown i might add and lost a lot of weight for the trial,they had to show me a pic of the kenny i knew when i hung out with him .good job !!!!!!!! and as 4 betty she should be proud of herself gee i had to be dumb to not realize why she went all out with him when he committed the crimes in prov because of his crimes in Ayers.yes she has 6 siblings some of who are half brothers i believe who go by connors or oconners.did she mention that???? after he did trhe home invasion on my girlfriend while she was sleeping with 3 children in the house and they knocked her door down and he beat her with her children there i believe the only thing that saved her that nite was the prov police that they got there on time,why else was he there she had nothing them and god saved her .oh and the children are grown up and remember that nightmare well!as for the script writers they really needed to do there home work too.by the way im 58 now and have been living this nightmare 4 years .my heart goes out to the brows god bless them and all the people and lives the waters have ruined thx to the money .i can tell you this were was betty when kenny was homeless???????and what law does she pratice now???or is she just helping out the inn project .i beleive with all my heart that their are people in there that shouldnt be .kenny was already a convicted felon more then a few times it seems assault is his thing. and jewelete stay with your band u look real good there i really dont care if i spell your name right or wrong after you have slandered me like you know me....u know nothing about me and oh did your people tell you while i was living in a trailor park which i wasnt i was also a full time cna who came straight home to my husband who had 3 to 4 months left to live he lived 3 but i kept him home he felt safer.i also took care of 14 people a day which broke my heart also ,walk in my shoes and get a taste of the real world.not a people person lol too funny tell that to ev1 that knows me ,yes i have changed over the years from all the misery i see in people but i walk with my head high.oh and p.s. i was never kennys girlfriend just buddies until i got to kmow him .and dont worry i dont sleep at nite.

[libertybell13139]

i hate to remind people this movie is not about hilary swank!she was reading a script and making money on other peoples tragedy .how about the true victims.like the brows ,and its too bad the story isn't told like it really should be .for 1.kenny was as violent as they come and betty knew it.2. jewlwette lewis is playing the wrong part posanna was never his girlfriend, brenda was .2 after they lived in ayer they hightailed it to rhode island .and believe this they were no picnic here either,oh i wont lie they were fun too be around if you wanted to party but when the truth came out about kenny really wanted for murder things changed fast .and here came betty to the resue when he did a home invasion on a womans house with anthor man and broke her arm and was beating her till the police came with a baseball bat but betty said on the today show her brother would never do that bull ,and who was at her house the next day begging her to drop charges..she bald faced lied on t.v. and just to set the record straight jewlette is the one portraying me and nothing is further then the truth .i never lived in a trailar park drinking 2 bottles of wine a day and oh people never walked on the other side of the st when they saw me,and they make me out to be the villan ...oh lets see would it be because he punched and bashed out my Name: XML DOM Document
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begging me to drop the charges with kenny crying his eyes out?

[mari1963]

I have much respect for Hilary Swank and her mother. Hilary's dead beat father left her family when she was 13 and her mother was strong and took care of her family herself. Good for her! I love all of the work Hilary does and I hope this movie does well.