A PERIOD film, a history lesson and a courtroom drama, Robert Redford's The Conspirator is earnest and carefully presented, but it doesn't quite have the complexity its subject matter invites.
In the aftermath of Lincoln's assassination, a young lawyer, Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy), is asked to defend what appears to him to be the indefensible. John Wilkes Booth might have pulled the trigger, but others are accused of complicity in Lincoln's death. Eight people, including a woman, Mary Surratt (Robin Wright), are charged with conspiracy.
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Aiken is at first utterly unsympathetic to Surratt, but becomes appalled by the course that the specially convened military tribunal is taking.McAvoy is capable and Wright gives a strong performance, but there's less ambiguity in the depiction of figures lined up against her, played by the likes of Kevin Kline and Danny Huston. The Conspirator is a fascinating story, but it feels a little too insistent and deliberate.
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