The Conspirator

Robert Redford’s “The Conspirator” poses questions of American values in a time of uncertainty for our country. It conveniently even applies to the recent death of Osama bin Laden, pondering if an unprecedented villain is entitled to his human rights. But could the reiteration of those values appear any more trite than they are here?

Through some extensive and deep research by his screenwriter James Solomon, Redford re-enacts the time following President Lincoln’s assassination through the eyes of Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy), a captain for the Union Army in the Civil War and now a lawyer working for the Southern senator Reverdy Johnson (Tom Wilkinson). His job is to defend Mary Surratt (Robin Wright), a keeper of a boarding house charged with sheltering, aiding and conspiring in the murder of President Lincoln with John Wilkes Booth.

Aiken is nearly certain of her guilt, as is the rest of the country looking for answers and revenge, but Johnson convinces him that the Constitution entitles her to the same fair trial as anyone else, and the trial made up of a jury of Northern war officers and a biased Attorney General is not it.

This becomes more than clear as it does in almost all courtroom dramas. A judge is always bitter and unfair, the prosecutor is always ruthless and smarmy, the surprise witnesses are always unpredictable bombshells and the pitiful client will always sit silently and stoically until the climactic moment when an outburst in the courtroom threatens to place them in contempt.

I grew tired of “The Conspirator’s” drawn out portrayal of yet another courtroom drama with hints of conflicting American values not so subtly poking their heads into the proceedings.

The dialogue is no help as all the characters in this film speak in predictable, declarative statements of righteousness and morality. One will set the other up with a piercing question of loyalty so that it can be knocked down with a strong, trailer-worthy line of dialogue.

The performers delivering this material are strong in their own right, but here they seem labored and stiff, reciting this period banter without being able to avoid melodrama. There are moments of powerful emotional outbursts, but they seem preachy and parrot themes told so often they come across as overblown.

And no one will deny Redford’s visual style. His cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel adds a faux-sepia-tone tint to every frame. So often does he bathe the characters in beams of heavenly light coming in through a conveniently placed window that there is no moment when these people are not basking in this warming glow, blatantly heralding their righteous defense of American values.

It’s all too much of the same and all handled wrongly from Redford. Focusing on Mary Surratt directly and not the young, valor driven lawyer assigned to defend her would have helped his cause.

“The Conspirator” is noble in its message and its virtues but flawed in its execution.

2 stars

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