A football player’s dreams to play in the NFL are halted when he is wrongly convicted and sent to prison. Years later, he fights to clear his name within an unjust system.
16-year-old Brian Banks (Aldis Hodge) was convicted of rape, sodomy, and kidnapping of school mate Kennisha Rice (Xosha Roquemore) after briefly making out with her in a hallway at summer school in July of 2002. He recounts the story of seeing Kennisha on his way to class, her telling him she was headed to the 700 building and deciding to accompany her. The 700 building, much farther away, is known as a place where the students make out, Brian admits to being afraid of getting caught but goes along anyway. After they began innocently kissing, he hears a teacher coming down the hall, becomes paranoid and immediately leaves.
Kennisha heads back to her classroom embarrassed at what just happened, gets confronted by a school employee regarding her whereabouts, gets scared and lies, claiming Brian forced her to the location. Not believing her story, they question her in a suggestive manner, asking if Brian forced and raped her. Not even knowing what rape means, she agrees. When she arrives back in her classroom, she passes a note along to her friend claiming that Brian had raped her in the 700 building. That night, police storm into Brian’s home and arrest him on charges of rape, sodomy, and kidnapping. Brian is sentenced to 6 years in prison with 5 years of supervised probation after his appointed attorney coerces him into accepting a plea of no contest to the charges. Kennisha files and wins a $1.5 million dollar lawsuit against the school on the grounds that the school is not safe.
After being released, Brian never gives up hope of proving his innocence mainly due to a mentor he met while incarcerated (Morgan Freeman) who instilled mentally freeing the mind as the only way of survival; which involves leaving confinement while being confined. Brian hears about an organization called The California Innocent Project founded by criminal defense attorney Justin Brooks (Greg Kinnear) while trying to reopen his trial on his own and failing. After writing several times and getting no response, Brian visits one of the meetings and convinces Brooks to take on his case.
As they struggle to find new evidence, which is the only thing that will successfully reopen the case, Kennisha friends Brian on Facebook. Disgusted and shocked she would even try to reconnect, he accepts with the idea that he could get her to admit he didn’t rape her and clear his name. He calls upon the help of a friend who works in real estate to set up hidden cameras in his office to record the confession. When she arrives she reveals that nothing ever happened but when she is called to court she goes back on her word and sticks to her story with fear of losing her $1.5 million dollar settlement against the school. Desperate, Brian ends up pulling a favor from a reporter he met while playing football, and the confession goes viral. The story captures national attention and after much deliberation, the judge decides to overturn the case and Brian’s name is ultimately cleared.
There are many men in prison right now that have been wrongfully accused of rape crimes and unless they go viral on social media causing a public uproar, nobody cares. It upsets me just thinking about the many who didn’t commit these crimes and are sitting in cells with no support of their families or friends like Brian had. Brian’s mother Leomia (Sherri Shepard) was a huge influence and supported him. He also had a great legal team that believed in him but this is not always the case, in fact, it’s rare.
I am so ecstatic to see a film where the accuser of a false rape crime is held accountable, we definitely need to see more of these cases and the accusers exposed. It also reveals a lot about our justice system that many choose to ignore. The district attorney failed to visit the actual scene of the crime and figure out that her story was impossible. There was no DNA match to support Kennisha’s story but Brian was still sentenced to 6 years in prison, how scary is that? A man’s childhood was taken from him and there was not a shred of evidence.
This film is definitely a must-see! It’s based on a true story and actually has a happy ending which I liked. I think it’s inspirational on so many levels that Brian had a mentor that influenced his life, was able to start over and even find love with a personal trainer at a local gym by the name of Katrina (Melanie Liburd) who supported him throughout his trial.
In theaters Friday, August 9th
