Brian Banks

An account of a real miscarriage of justice. Brian Banks plays high school football and is about to take a college scholarship. At sixteen he is accused of rape by a classmate. His lawyer does the arithmetic for him: go to trial and risk many years, admit the charge and the sentence will be short. Banks admits it. It does not go as he expected. He serves years, comes out on the sex offender register, lives with a tag on his ankle and cannot find work. The second half is the effort to clear his name. Banks approaches a legal organisation that re-examines convictions. At first they are not interested; a case with an admission of guilt is a hard case. In 2012 the conviction was overturned and Banks was exonerated. What the film is really interested in is the plea bargaining system: why an innocent person chooses to admit guilt is set out step by step. Aldis Hodge plays Banks and Greg Kinnear his lawyer. Tom Shadyac directed. An affecting example for anyone who likes legal drama drawn from record. For a viewer looking for restraint, the film steers feeling openly and does not treat the other side in any depth.