THIS MOVIE IS SO WRONG ON SO MANY LEVELS. IVE KNOWN MANDY'S AUNT SINCE BEFORE SHE WAS BORN. ONE DAY I WAS DRIVING WITH MANDYS AUNT HER AND SHE WAS UPSET BECAUSE BRENDA SHOWED UP AT HER HOUSE WITH THE KIDS HYSTERICAL, CLAIMING MANDY'S DAD SHOWED UP AT BRENDA APARTMENT COVERED IN BLOOD BRAGGNG ABOUT THE MURDERS. THE PORTRAYAL OF BENDA IS JUST AWEFUL. INSTEAD OF THE WOKING MOM SHE WAS RAISING HER TWO CHILDREN ALONE, THEY MADE HER LOOK LIKE TRASH, BRENDA DID NOT DESERVE THAT. MANDYS DAD GOT OFF FOR LACK OF EVIDENCE AND A NEGATIVE DNA TEST. THIS DID NOT PROVE HE DIDn'T MURDER THE VICTIM. KNOWING THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY I FEEL PROFOUNDLY SORRY FOR THE VICTIMS FAMILY.

The film is based on an interesting true story , and could have made a good movie. . Unfortunately, it quickly devolves into a lifetime network cliché.Basically, a hard luck white trash family becomes even unluckier when one of the brothers is falsely accused and convicted of murder. Hillary Swank reprieves her role as a poorly educated but not too dumb white trasher, good looking but evidently too poor for orthodontic care.The film has high rent cinematography , but low brow script writing. This is demonstrated early on when , yes, an adult male insults a child, and is promptly beaten to a pulp. This transpires at a wedding reception where a man questions the wisdom of bringing a small child to a rowdy, white trash jamboree. Sam Rockwell, all 170 lbs of him, instantly beats the guy, nearly popping his head like a zit. A toothy swank looks on, smiling like a mutant hyena.It's not that the above scene is a Lifetime Channel cliché, it's that ALL the scenes are. Swank puts her life on hold to defend her brother, getting her GED and a law school degree from some matchbook degree mill. In spite of her disadvantaged background, she is smarter than every man the legal system has ever produced. Major credibility problems, even for the Oxygen Network crowd. They are usually satisfied by simplistic "woman better than men" stories but this one is silly even for them.Hillary Swank has made a career out of these kind of roles, and her "unusual " appearance has simultaneously attracted and puzzled audiences for years. I once heard her humble brag about not having health insurance when she got her first Oscar. I hope she can afford a dental plan now.

A lot of film are made that are based on a true story, and most of these films claim to be inspirational, but seldom are. Finding a truly inspirational film, that is based on a true story, is like finding a needle in a haystack, in this case, that needle is called Conviction. Betty Anne Waters (Hilary Swank) came from a dysfunctional family, dropped out of High School, got married, and had kids, while she was still a child herself. She never wanted to be anything more than a housewife, until her brother, Kenneth (Sam Rockwell), was convicted of a murder she knew he couldn't have committed. It took fifteen long years, but Betty Anne got her GED, finished college, and went to law school, with the hopes of one day getting her brother exonerated. Hilary Swank stars and thrives in roles like this one. Despite her beauty and talent, she is one of the most down to earth people in Hollywood, and is always very believable as a normal, every day person. In most of her films, she is the kind of person audiences empathize with and cheer for, making her perfect for this role. She is paired with Sam Rockwell who is one of the most underrated stars in Hollywood. The man has immense talent, but is seldom talked about, because of the awful films he decides to star in. I have admired Rockwell for a long time, but this is the first time I can remember rating a film he was in higher than three stars. Conviction is a real story, written by the people who lived through it. It is heartfelt, inspirational, and most importantly real. The film may have bombed in theaters, but it is a true gem that was seriously overlooked.

Usually I find myself agreeing with the general sway of view reviews here on IMDb but not in this case. This is all the more unusual as I am a fan of Law and Order type movies and (like most of the free world) left of center on the America penal system. Story line points aside Swank and Rockwell are very good and play off each other wonderfully in this film. So why am I not raving about this movie? Well for a start it makes an obvious effort to 'tell the facts' even if that kills momentum, it places the history it wants to record ahead of the drama. There are a few times during the movie when I found myself asking 'why did they bother telling me that?' when it was obvious the film makers wanted me to know something that had little to do with the story being told at that particular moment on screen. Later when reading around the story online the reasons became clearer. I do not know how much of the real story was lost in translation to screen play and I do not know how much was altered to suit individual family members. I do know that if you ignore the 'based on a true story' and simply view this as entertainment giving it 6 out of 10 is more than generous.