Ralph's Movie Reviews: CONVICTION

Sunday, October 31, 2010

CONVICTION

Crime drama
Based on a true story

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Sam Rockwell: Kenneth “Muddy” Waters
Hilary Swank: his younger sister Betty Anne
Loren Dean: Betty Ann’s husband Rick
Conner Donovan: their oldest son Richard
Owen Campbell: the younger brother Ben
Minnie Driver: law student Abra Rice
Melissa Leo: Ayer Police Officer Nancy Taylor
Juliette Lewis: Kenny’s ex-girlfriend Roseanna Perry
Peter Gallagher: Attorney Barry Scheck
Ari Graynor: Kenny’s daughter Mandy

REVIEW
Despite the flashbacks-within-flashbacks somehow it all makes sense as the story unfolds of a sister determined to prove her brother is innocent of the crime he is serving time for. The relatively slow pace allows for character development of the key players in this riveting account that spans more than 16 years.

All of the cast do remarkable work but three are outstanding and they alone are worth the price of admission: Swank, Rockwell (in a supporting role) and Lewis.

CLASSIFICATION

for language and some disturbing images.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
The producers great attention to detail resulted in my being unable to find even one real nitpick. The closest I came was when one of the boys says to his mother “Hurry up, it’s 8:15 and we have to go”. The wall clock behind her showed it to be 8:16. That hardly warrants being a nitpick. But at least I tried.

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.