Conviction (2010 film)
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Tony Goldwyn |
| Produced by |
Andrew Sugerman Andrew S. Karsch Tony Goldwyn |
| Written by | Pamela Gray |
| Starring |
Hilary Swank Sam Rockwell Minnie Driver Melissa Leo Peter Gallagher Juliette Lewis |
| Music by | Paul Cantelon |
| Cinematography | Adriano Goldman |
| Edited by | Jay Cassidy |
| Distributed by | Fox Searchlight Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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107 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $12.5 million |
| Box office | $9.7 million |
Conviction is a 2010 legal drama film directed by Tony Goldwyn, written by Pamela Gray, and starring Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell. The film premiered on September 11, 2010, at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released in the US on October 15, 2010.
The film is based on the true story of Betty Anne Waters, a single mother who works tirelessly to free her wrongfully convicted brother, Kenny. The story unfolds in flashbacks, and the film opens with the scene of the brutal 1980 murder of Katharina Brow in Ayer, Massachusetts. In many ways, Betty Anne's life revolves around her brother, who is now in jail for the murder. Despite Kenny's knack for getting in trouble, they have always been close. After the murder, Kenny is initially brought in for questioning by Sergeant Nancy Taylor (Melissa Leo), but released. Two years later, based on new testimony from two witnesses, Kenny is arrested and tried. The evidence presented at Kenny's trial is entirely circumstantial, but he is convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. The three main witnesses against him are Sergeant Taylor, his ex-wife Brenda (Clea DuVall), and ex-girlfriend Roseanna (Juliette Lewis).
Three years later, Betty Anne lives with her husband, Rick (Loren Dean) and two sons, Richard and Ben. She is frantic that she has not heard from Kenny, who calls her every week from prison, and finally discovers that he tried to commit suicide. Betty Anne decides to go back to school and become a lawyer so she can exonerate him, but her husband is skeptical and unsupportive, and eventually they split up. As Betty Anne struggles with being a working mother attending law school, flashbacks reveal that her mother was callous and uncaring, forcing Kenny and Betty Anne to fend for themselves. The two were very close, but frequently got into trouble, and were eventually taken away from their mother and sent to separate foster homes.
Betty Anne continues to visit Kenny in prison, working in a bar while going to school, but her busy schedule causes her to miss a planned outing with her sons, who decide they would be better off living with their father. Struggling in school, demoralized and exhausted, Betty Anne stops going to classes, until a friend from school, Abra (Minnie Driver), comes to her house and prods her to just get up, get dressed, and get back to class.
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