Conviction

[Ms Thrifty]

Can't find a thread for this but it's out on 14 January (so if any previews are planned, we had better be told soon!) and I've been reading interesting articles about it. Sounds reminiscent of Erin Brockovich and gets quite a good rating on IMDB.

"A working mother puts herself through law school in an effort to represent her brother, who has been wrongfully convicted of murder and has exhausted his chances to appeal his conviction through public defenders."

Apparently, though, the film withholds the sad, real-life ending.

[destresserai]

From what I understand the film pretty much finishes at the end of the legal case and not what happened after to him. A shame really that the family were not able to really enjoy his freedom for long. I think it is even more amazing that Betty Anne Waters has never worked as a lawyer since - she merely worked for her brother and that was it!

[Ms Thrifty]

Yes, it does seem incredible that the heroine didn't continue with law professionally. On the other hand, at great personal cost (including her marriage) she had given years of her life to freeing her brother so maybe she'd just had enough. And apparently she still does voluntary work for other victims of injustice.

[EthanRunt]

Just checked online to see what you mean, wow, that's really sad.
Loved this film, a real surprise at the London Film Festival, as I'm not all that big on Ms. Swank, but she did an amazing job in it, as of course did Sam Rockwell.
Felt so involved throughout the film, and by the end, even though I figured it'd all be ok, I was genuinely hoping it'd wrap up nicely, glad they didn't include that little element.

[destresserai]

It would seem that the Innocence Project which Betty Anne Waters volunteers through has assisted with yet another injustice within the US.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12115208

Not sure how someone adjusts to freedom after so long in prison - it can't be easy.

[Ms Thrifty]

Saw this yesterday and rate it a clear 8/10. Nothing unusual and it reminded me of so many other films (for instance, The Blind Side - I even felt that either Sandra Bullock or Hilary Swank could have played the lead in both with little difference to the end product) but well done and very absorbing and entertaining.

[Spanner]

Saw this today and thought it would be a bit boring after the trailer seemed yet again to give away the whole film but I was pleasantly surprised that this held my interest throughout. I wished they had revealed what happened to him to cinema-goers at the end. Also I did get a tad confused when it switched to the early days back story without telling us that, but all in all a good story well told 8/10

[weliveandbreathewords]

I wished they had revealed what happened to him to cinema-goers at the end.

From what i heard from an interview with the actual woman whos story it is, her brother unfortunately died a few years back, so he never got to seehis story on the big screen

[Spanner]

yeah I heard that too and thought oh how sad an all, so I did a bit of surfing trying to find out more about this story and came across this.....

http://www.projo.com/news/content/Water ... 0e081.html

What is quite interesting is some of the comments are posted by (or appear to be posted by) real family members, including kenny waters' daughter and the character the juliette lewis played.

The old adage you can choose your friends, comes to mind somewhat!

[soonforgotten]

I just read a great article from The Guardian here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/dec ... -interview

Saw this today and enjoyed it. It's not the most suspenseful film you'll see but it tells a really interesting story and the performances are strong. It's incredibly sad to see how it all turned out, though. To lose all those years of his life and to only get the final six months. I feel for Betty Anne, as well, she fough so hard and sacrificed so much... what a shame.

Anyway, nothing groundbreaking but a good flick 7.5/10