Review of The Conspirator (2011) by Sarah E — 27 Oct 2011

There are some great performances in The Conspirator. I especially liked James McAvoy as Frederick Aiken, the reluctant prosecutor for Robin Wright's Mary Surratt. Her and Wright play off one another superbly, first by butting heads, duty bound and honour driven as they both are, before eventually negotiating a friendly and respectable relationship. It's difficult to single them out when the cast is populated by several talented performers. The only aberrant actor among them is Alexis Bledel, who, while given very little to do, somehow manages to do even less than her pithy role demands of her. Thankfully, her scenes are few.

The Conspirator is the first film produced by the American Film Company, an agency dedicated to making and distributing historically accurate films. Redford has managed to create something unique here in terms of historical accuracy. He takes the courtroom procedural and deconstructs it, providing not one but many perspectives in order to present facts as free from bias as they possibly can be. Unfortunately, in his quest for historical accuracy, Redford allows current events to distort the events of the past somewhat, and while the movie passes no clear judgment on Surratt, it is very critical of the power structures that were in place at the time and the way they wielded their influence. The movie was a response to very contemporary questions about government, something I believe is understandable but threatens the foundations on which the American Film Company seeks to create film.