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Conviction | 2010 | R | - 5.7.10

A single mother (Hilary Swank) struggles to put herself through college and then Law School in order to prove that her brother (Sam Rockwell) was wrongly convicted of murder and to rally against the system that placed him in jail for life. Also with Minnie Driver, Melissa Leo, Ele Bardha, Juliette Lewis and Peter Gallagher. Directed by Tony Goldwyn. [1:37]

SEX/NUDITY 5 - A man dances suggestively in front of two women and a man, he unbuttons his shirt, walks to the center of the crowded bar, throws his shirt at a woman (we see his bare chest and back), then stands on a stage, pulls down the waistband of his pants, his pants drop to the ground and he dances, and his bare buttocks are visible as the crowd cheers.
 A shirtless man is seen lying in bed next to a woman, the woman leans over him and they kiss but are interrupted by a telephone ringing. A shirtless man is seen standing in a jail cell. A group of shirtless men are seen playing basketball. A woman throws a pair of underwear at another woman lying in bed, fully clothed, and tells her to change her clothes.
 A man and a woman kiss. A woman sits on a man's lap and they kiss passionately. A man and a woman hug on multiple occasions. A man kisses a woman on the forehead.
 During testimony in a courtroom, a woman tells the court that she and a man had been "lovers," and a man makes a crude sexual gesture with his hands and mouth to a woman and laughs. A man buttons his pants and puts on a shirt as he walks out of a room with a police officer and makes a crude joke that the officer had just been waiting to see him naked.
 During a mock trial prep, a man and two women discuss how a woman will be portraying a man accused of rape, who asked for a new case after the DNA evidence proved that his semen was not present in the rape victim. A man makes a crude remark to a woman that she looks attractive in a police uniform. A man remarks to a woman that if she keeps wearing a pair of jeans that he will marry her. A woman jokingly asks another woman if just one of them, or both, are going to have to sleep with a man in order to accomplish what they need. A woman jokes to two teenage boys that a man is dating a 16-year-old.

VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - A path of blood is seen on walls, furniture and appliances, blood covers the walls of a bedroom, a pool of blood is seen on the floor, a bed is covered in blood, and the blood-covered and maimed body of a woman is seen lying on the ground; photographs of the crime scene are seen later, as well as detailed photographs of the woman's various injuries as they are being examined by a group of men and women (blood had been washed away, but we see deep cuts on her face, and bloody cuts on her head, legs and arms).
 After a man makes a rude remark to another man about bringing a baby to a bar and accidentally knocking into him, the man attacks him: they wrestle and fall to the floor, the attacker presses the other man to the ground, holds a broken bottle to his face and threatens to kill him; the fight is then broken up. A man shouts saying he is going to kill a woman, he then lunges at a correctional officer who is trying to calm him down, the officer pins the man against a wall and two other officers slam the man against a table and handcuff him. A shirtless man standing in a jail cell shouts and throw things against the bars of the cell as correctional officers run into the cell; a police officer sprays him with pepper spray and the man screams and falls to his knees.
 A group of children watch as a boy and a girl wrestle; the boy pins the girl, the girl stand up and punches the boy in the stomach multiple times and the boy falls over. A woman slaps an older woman in the face and shouts at her after she says that she believes a man might have committed murder. A woman slaps a man twice on the arm and face; he appears unharmed.
 A police officer stands outside a house and shouts at a boy and a girl that are inside; the children attempt to jump out of the window, a police officer holding a gun enters the house and grabs the girl, the boy throws rocks at the officer, and two other officers rush the boy as he jumps on top of the officer holding the girl and they shout angrily.
 A police officer asks a man what the scratches on his face are from, and the man says he was scratched by branches he was cutting down; the man holds a chainsaw and the police officer tells him to put it down, he makes a rude remark to the officer, and she pulls out her gun and arrests him. A funeral is interrupted as a group of police officers arrest a man, handcuffing him, yanking him out of a church pew and pushing him through the doors, as one officer announces that the man is being charged with murder. A police officer drags a boy away from a girl as they cry; the boy struggles and the girl tries to hit the police officer but he drags the boy away quickly. A boy and a girl are seen throwing presumably stolen candy out the window of a store, and a police officer is later seen yanking the boy out of the backseat of a police cruiser and shouting at a woman, who shouts at the boy as the girl watches and cries.
 Two women examine pieces of fabric with dried blood on them and glance momentarily at a photograph of an arm with a bloody cut. On multiple occasions, a woman asks a man to never hurt himself again, after he shows her two small healing scars on his wrists.
 A woman shouts and we see her throwing furniture and appliances against a wall as two teenage boys watch. A young woman slams a door on a woman's face and shouts that a man is a murderer and she does not want anything to do with him. A woman shouts at a man. A woman shouts at a woman. A man shouts at another man and says that he will "kill him" if he is not agreeable. On multiple occasions, male correctional officers shout at a man during a visit from a woman, telling him to sit down or to not have any physical contact with the woman.
 A woman says that she had been kidnapped by police officers, who took her to a hotel room, gave her alcohol and told her to say that a man had admitted to her that he had murdered a woman; she describes being shown pictures of the bloody crime scene, including seeing photographs of the female victim covered in stab wounds and that a police officer insinuated that her children would have the same thing happen to them if she did not cooperate, or that she would be charged as an accomplice to the murder. A woman talks about having been taken by police officers to a hotel and harassed into saying that a man had murdered a woman and that she had been forced to look at "gross" photographs of the crime scene and was going to be charged as an accomplice to murder if she did not lie about a false confession.
 We hear that a woman had been discovered with over 27 stab wounds and that her head had been "bashed in until her brains blew out." A woman addresses a courtroom and says that a woman had been stabbed to death, a man describes how a woman had been stabbed over 30 times and graphically describes how she had knife wounds in her chest, arms, face, and stomach and that an "enormous" amount of blood was present at the crime scene. A young woman tells a woman that she had a memory as a child of hearing her mother say that her father had a shirt covered in blood (implying the man had murdered someone and was covered in the victim's blood) and that she had been raised to believe he was a murderer. A woman describes how a man had attempted to shove her through the second story window of a house after they got in a verbal altercation. We hear that a man had been sent to a correctional camp as a child due to criminal behavior. A woman jokingly tells a man and a woman that she wants to knock out a woman's remaining teeth. A woman discusses how blood evidence from a crime scene had been investigated, and that a man had his blood drawn and tested. A woman is told that a man tried to kill himself and is now under protective custody in prison. A man tells a woman that women rarely commit suicide by shooting themselves and that he believes a man shot a woman and she did not commit suicide. A woman discusses with various men and women that a man had been convicted of murdering a woman and for armed burglary and is serving a life sentence in jail, without the eligibility for parole. A man tells a woman that he had been arrested for killing a woman. A man and a woman discuss how a man had been charged with murder. A man tells a woman that he did not kill a woman. During court proceedings, we see two women on the stand describe how a man had scratches on his face and had admitted to murdering a woman. A woman accuses an older woman of setting a man up to be convicted of rape.
 A teenage boy unbuckles his seatbelt and acts like he is trying to climb over the seat to hit another teenage boy that is riding in the backseat, as a woman laughs and the boy sits back down. A police officer jokingly slaps a man gently on the side of the head. A woman jokingly shoves another woman. Two teenage boys duck to avoid being hit by sleeping bags falling from ceiling rafters.
 A woman falls to her knees and cries.

LANGUAGE 10 - About 62 F-words and its derivatives, 1 sexual reference, 13 scatological terms, 6 anatomical terms, 22 mild obscenities, name-calling (buttercup, wild animal, trash, big mouth, old lady, Angie Dickinson, old German, no good, preppy, scumbags, insane, Jew-lawyer, chumps, evil), 6 religious profanities, 11 religious exclamations.

SUBSTANCE USE - Men and women drink alcoholic beverages on various occasions, including at bars, wine with dinner, and bottles of beer while watching television, and a woman appears to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol and makes a remark that she had been tricked into doing something because a man and a woman got her drunk. A man and woman are seen smoking cigarettes, an older woman and a young woman smoke cigarettes, and men and women are seen smoking cigarettes at a bar.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Death penalty, murder, being sentenced to life without parole, going to law school, family commitment, foster care, unsolved murder, divorce, being a single mother, evidence, suicide, Innocent Project, DNA testing.

MESSAGE - It is extraordinary what people will do for their loved ones. Never give up hope.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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