2 ½ stars (out of four)
** Note: This review freely discusses elements of the plot, which is based on a widely publicized true story. There’s little in my review that the trailer doesn’t also reveal.
The real-life achievement of Betty Anne Waters (played here by Hilary Swank) is without a doubt impressive. After her brother (played by Sam Rockwell) was wrongly convicted of murder, Waters got her GED, went to college and eventually passed the bar to become his lawyer. She did all this while supporting her two sons and working part-time at a local bar, knowing there was only a slim chance of reopening the case and exonerating her brother. Waters’s story is motivational to be sure, but the awe it inspires comes from her patience and dedication over an 18-year period, and to condense her accomplishment into a film less than two hours long is to reduce that power. There may not be a way to reasonably recreate what was no doubt a long, laborious process, but this limitation keeps the film from achieving anything more than Lifetime movie-quality drama.
The film is structured with these limitations in mind, spending minimal time on the early years of her story (in other words, the dull years that involved a lot of reading and studying for exams). We are introduced to Waters already in law school amongst students half her age. Her only friend there is fellow middle-aged law student Abra (Minnie Driver). Abra sympathizes with Waters’s cause and lends her help and good humor to the case whenever possible.
We learn from flashbacks that Waters’s brother Kenny is a reckless man prone to bar fights. The police in town all know him by name and he’s a natural first suspect for the murder having broken into the victim’s home as a child. This incident led to a troubled childhood and separation from his sister. Sam Rockwell does a wonderful job of making a believable character out of Kenny. Rockwell brings his usual humor and charisma to the role but adds emotional depth in the later scenes. Kenny is grateful for everything his sister does for him, but it pains him to see her wasting her life on what may end up a futile cause.
Hilary Swank lends a great deal of credibility to her role, making Waters a woman of faith and, yes, conviction. Her performance, along with Rockwell’s, elevates the film above made-for-TV-movie quality. Swank has played roles like this before, but she’s very good at them. Just reading Waters’s story in a newspaper, one might ask, “How could someone remain so dedicated for so long?” Swank, however, makes this dedication real, never overacting. We believe Waters’s love for her brother and so we believe her unflagging hope in his eventual release.
Despite the effective human story, the film has the inevitable structural problems that come from making a movie out of a real-life case. The legal system is inherently un-dramatic and the film loses steam near the end when Waters is a given a few extra legal hoops to jump through. The founder of the Innocence Project, Barry Scheck (Peter Gallagher), joins the cause late in the film and a few legal technicalities regarding DNA testing drags the film out another twenty minutes beyond what seems to be its natural endpoint.
There is also the sense that screenwriter Pamela Gray is picking and choosing what aspects of the original story to include. Waters’s husband, for example, drops out of the film entirely about halfway through following their divorce. Apparently examining the damaging effects that the case had on Waters’s marriage would have dampened the film’s inspirational tone. Additionally, a very interesting piece of information about a dirty cop comes up late in the film and is largely dismissed.
Before the end credits role, we’re treated to a photograph of the real Betty Anne and Kenny Waters. This trend of showing a picture of the real people is one that comes up in a lot of biopics, but why? What are we supposed to take away from seeing the real people after watching actors portray them? Is it meant as proof that the story really happened? Regardless, the photo functions as a way of reminding audiences that in spite of earnest efforts, some great stories just aren’t cinematic stories, and that the film version of Betty Anne Waters has nothing on the real one.
- Steve Avigliano, 11/09/10
