The Conspirator - 3 1/2 smiles

The American Film Co., which seeks to make movies drawn from American history, hits the jackpot with its first film. Directed by Robert Redford, “The Conspirator” is a real who knew? kind of story. However, because a large part of the story, focusing on the conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln, takes place in a courtroom, there’s lots of talk and not much action. Redford does a good job in developing the narrative and making one of history’s least sympathetic women into something of a heroine. But the emotional core of the film rests on a character played with considerable emotional energy by James McAvoy, Union veteran and war hero Frederick Aiken, who as a new lawyer defended Mary Surratt, one of four individuals charged in the conspiracy after John Wilkes Booth was shot trying to escape arrest. Interestingly, screenwriter James Solomon uses court transcripts and other research to expose another kind of conspiracy: Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (a steely Kevin Kline), who practically runs the government in the weeks following Lincoln’s assassination, wants a quick trial and execution of the four conspirators to get the whole affair over with, all in the name of the nation’s good. The problem is that the fourth conspirator, John Surratt (Johnny Simmons), who escapes the massive manhunt, is missing. So instead, his mother, Mary (Robin Wright), is put on trial. And rather than put the decision in the hands of a judge and civilian jury, Stanton sets up a military tribunal with generals handpicked to ensure the desired guilty verdict.

Ultimately, “The Conspirator” concerns itself less with the historical conflict and more with our hero’s conscience and sense of justice. Although Aiken has contempt for the rebels and conspirators, he wonders if Mary Surratt, whose guilt rests on the flimsy fact that the conspirators met at her Washington boardinghouse, truly guilty. Around him, Aiken sees political expediency coming to the fore and he gradually comes to see that injustice to Mary is a foolhardy way to bind the nation’s wounds. McAvoy is skillful as a man, first, trapped in a distasteful job and, then, caught in his own conscience. Wright is excellent as the unyielding Mary, her face a mask of grim resolve. Production values are high with authentic costumes seemingly ripped from the pages of old newspapers and the 1865 District of Columbia brought to life with filming in Savannah, Georgia, where much of that era’s architecture survives. “The Conspirator” is a thought-provoking must-see if, for nothing else, to be able to say, now I know. 4/15/11