Conviction

Directed by Tony Goldwyn

(R)

**

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Conviction is an “exceedingly earnest” legal drama that’s never as good as its source material, said Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times. The film tells the true story of Betty Anne Waters, a Massachusetts high school dropout who dedicated 18 years to proving her brother’s innocence after the blue-collar wild child was sentenced to life for a murder he didn’t commit. As Betty Anne, Hilary Swank is both tenacious and vulnerable, but she never provides “any sense of the obsessive drive” that would carry a real woman through college, law school, and bar exams just to defend her brother. Director Tony Goldwyn “deserves credit for weaving the texture of genuine American life” into what could have been a falsely uplifting tale, said Andrew O’Hehir in Salon.com. But it’s not clear why moviegoers would welcome such dreariness. Sam Rockwell’s “crackling energy” as the wronged brother relieves at least some of the solemnity, said Joe Morgenstern in The Wall Street Journal. Even so, the film’s best moments arrive when the Rockwell we see is simply a man “contemplating his shattered life.”