Talk about "Convicted" here:
Review by: Breanne Derby
Plot Summary
Also known by the title "Return to Sender," this film stars Aidan Quinn as Frank Nitzche, a lawyer who carries on mail correspondences with death-row inmates. One inmate in particular, Charlotte Cory (Connie Nielsen) captures his attention and his suspicions. Frank travels from his
Texas home to an Oklahoma prison where Charlotte is living out the last days of her life. The deeper Frank gets into the story behind Charlotte's death sentence, and the deeper he begins to care about Charlotte, the more he is convinced that the truth is being concealed. He races against time to prove that Charlotte is innocent and save her life before it is too late.
Review
First of all, I find it very strange that the title of this film was changed for the DVD release. Neither title is better nor worse; they both seem only vaguely related to the film. Apparently someone thought it was a good idea, because the DVD release is called "Convicted" and not "Return to Sender." Luckily I hadn't seen this already as "Return to Sender," or I might be mildly upset.
One fairly unique approach this film took was to change the camera at times. There were many scenes of Frank and Charlotte in a visiting room at the jail, and there were many scenes in general from the jail and other places with security cameras. When the characters were in these security camera areas, often times the shot would briefly jump from the regular camera to being shot through the security camera. This was an interesting thing to do, and it is not regularly used unless the people are committing a crime of some sort.
Also sprinkled throughout the film were occasional "flashback" shots. These were less interesting than the surveillance-camera shots, but I assumed that they would have served some purpose in the long run. Unfortunately, most of them did not end up making more sense in the end, and the one I found most intriguing was never explained at all.
Actually, there were quite a few very eccentric moments in this film that weren't really explained at all. Maybe I'm just a moron and didn't catch on to the subtle clues that were being laid down for me. Much of what was done seemed almost pointless, yet things worked out purely by chance. There didn't seem to be any reason for a lot of the things that Frank did, and there was a whole sub-plot involving the fact that he was a suspended death row lawyer that the film danced around going into, but successfully evaded.
I was disappointed by the complete lack of deleted scenes or any special features whatsoever on this DVD. I was hoping that there would be deleted scenes to help fill in the gaps that the film itself had left. Unfortunately there weren't any special features, which is quite bizarre because the film isn't incredibly old, but apparently the deleted scenes really did get left on the cutting-room floor this time. Buying the DVD of this film is virtually the same as buying the VHS except for the scene-selection option and optional Spanish subtitles. With DVD's, special features are the norm, and I was shocked when there weren't even deleted scenes on this DVD.
Conclusion
The plot of this film was a bit overcomplicated and unrealistic, but all in all it wasn't a bad film, and was certainly better than some of the incredibly lousy ones I've seen. The storyline wasn't one that has been exhausted time after time, but things were a bit outrageous in its complexities. This film wasn't at all bad, but it was incredibly forgettable. It doesn't have any distinctive qualities that will make it stick in my mind longer than next week. I am almost positive that even-though I wasn't bored when I was watching it, and the story wasn't incredibly average, I will forget everything about this film.
