Sister Dear

McNeill (Center of Gravity) misfires with this tangled tale of a wrongfully convicted woman trying to reclaim her life. In 2006, Allie Marshall went to prison for manslaughter in the death of high school football coach Boyd Thomas. On her release 10 years later, Allie returns home to Brunswick, Ga., where her daughter, Caroline, who was five when Allie was sentenced, wants nothing to do with her. Caroline has bonded closely with Allie’s sister, Emma, who has been Caroline’s guardian since her mother was imprisoned. Flashbacks to the events of 2006 reveal how Allie became convinced that Thomas was abusive and giving his players steroids. Sheriff Lee Gaines’s animosity, Emma’s subversion (first hinted at, then blatant), and Caroline’s histrionic anguish all become explicable once Allie discovers mysteriously still-intact evidence 10 years after Thomas’s death. Clumsy plotting and shallow characters don’t help. (Apr.)