The Conspirator: Directed by Robert Redford, this film details the military trial of Mary Surratt (played by Robin Wright) and other conspirators for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the attempted assassination of Secretary of State William Seward in 1865. Surratt, who has the dubious distinction of being the first woman executed by the federal government, ran a boarding house that John Wilkes Booth and other sympathizers frequented. She and her fellow conspirators, in violation of due process and in the name of political expediency, are forced into a military tribunal arranged by Secretary of Defense Edwin Stanton (played by Kevin Kline). Her defense is led by Frederick Aiken, a Civil War veteran and idealistic attorney fairly railroaded into the job, played by James McAvoy, who has an uphill battle proving her innocence in a court where the burden of proof is extremely lenient and his client is uncooperative. A better directorial effort than Redford’s “Lions for Lambs”, with a strong contemporary resonance to the current treatment and trials of suspected terrorists by the United States (the subjectivity of morality aside), it’s still not a very good film, with a profound emotional detachment to the proceedings, leaden pace, and lack of energy. Surratt, as played by Wright, doesn’t make for a terribly sympathetic character – she lies in her own defense to protect her son John, a Confederate courier. There is nary a likable person to be found, and we have no more profound insight into the life of Surratt, her motivations, and whether or not she was truly guilty of the crimes she was executed for (though it seems she was convicted as a proxy for her son). It’s a pretty movie to look at, but it’s not a great movie to watch. Woodchuck sez, “Nothing to write home about.”
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