The Conspirator, directed by Hollywood’s legendary golden boy Robert Redford, is the first feature film from The American Film Company, a production studio aiming to push aside the vagaries of fiction and make movies about American history that are historically accurate. The failure to change the title to the more accurate conspiratrix aside, Redford’s film, with a big-name cast made up of James McAvoy, Robin Wright, Tom Wilkinson, Kevin Kline, Evan Rachel Wood, and many more, does a fine job at factually detailing the precision behind the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, as well as the political injustices carried out against Mary Surratt, the only woman to be tried as part of the plot.
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| She hadn't actually expected them to call the fashion police |
But the plot fails to thicken as we’re offered yet another rote courtroom/political drama, this time with 19th century politicos’ thirst for justice leading to a woman being stitched up for a crime she may not have committed. McAvoy is suitably po faced as her reluctant attorney, who grows increasingly despondent with the lack of due diligence as a civilian is brought before a rather hostile military court, but Robin Wright is criminally underused, getting as much of a raw deal from James D. Solomon’s script as the real Surratt got from Lady Justice. It’s seems somewhat unfortunate that the film should focus so heavily on a crusading lawyer’s frustration, while the real drama of his client’s fight for survival gets pushed behind some serious beard stroking and Danny Huston’s Machiavellian opposing counsel.
2 ½ Likes
Certificate: 12A
Runtime: 122 mins
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