Yet another film based upon a true story.
Brother and sister (Kenny and Betty Anne Waters) do not have the ideal childhood but they have each other and the bond that they develop will last a lifetime.
Kenny always had a wild streak in him and they were separated at one point and placed with separate foster families. But this probably only strengthened their bond...
Kenny is falsely accused of murder and suffers the consequences by having to spend the rest of his life in prison. Meanwhile Betty Anne, convinced of his innocence, happens to be a high school dropout, is married, and has two children. She vows to get him out of prison and somewhat like 127 Hours she does something that every viewer will ask themselves after experiencing this film -- if I were in her shoes, could I have done what she did?
What exactly does she do?
She uses the legal system to exonerate her brother. She first gets her GED. Then she goes to college part-time while working in a bar (keep in mind that she's raising two children at the same time) and gets a college degree. Her husband leaves her because he can't understand her obsession with getting her guilty (in his mind) brother out of prison. She can't afford to pay for an attorney so she goes to law school herself to be able to represent him legally. Remember, she's now a single mother raising two children, working part-time, and attending law school.
This is around the time that DNA evidence became more prevalent in cases like this and she pursues this with the help of the nonprofit organization known as the Innocence Project to find the DNA evidence needed to indeed exonerate him.
He entered prison in 1983 and was released in 2001... that's 18 years that she pursued an education to allow her to fight for her brother's release. And she... well, especially he, or better yet, they... won.
A story of struggle and triumph. Hillary Swank and Sam Rockwell gave two excellent, very worthy performances.
My only issue with this film is that the story, the way it was written and directed, seemed better suited as a top notch cable movie rather than a theatrical release. But that's a minor point...
