“Conviction” sounds far too familiar, chronicling the true journey of a bartender and mother who puts herself through law school for the sole purpose of exonerating her imprisoned brother. But with writer Pamela Gray and director Tony Goldwyn at the helm, the same team who crafted the undervalued but beautifully realistic “A Walk on the Moon,” “Conviction” should certainly rise above its Lifetime-esque aura. Throw in Academy Award winner Hilary Swank as heroine Betty Anne Waters, and it can’t go wrong.
And yet, it does.