Review of The Conspirator (2011) by Wesley R — 29 Apr 2011

A well-acted film that is plagued by a slow pace and frankly a bland attempt at a "whodunit" plot. The beginning of the film starts off with a bang as it quickly gives us the back story of our protagonist, Frederick Aiken, and then the actual assassination of President Lincoln, his Vice President, and his Secretary of State.

After this relatively short period of film, the story focuses on Frederick fighting against his own beliefs to defend Mary Surratt. I feel that if the film focused on everyone convicted in the assassination rather than just her then the story would be far more intriguing.

Instead we're given lots of scenes of her either withholding information or lying about her involvement. I mentioned that the plot was a bland attempt at a "whodunit" and this is why. There is no question that Mary knew her borders were plotting against Lincoln.

The entire court case is really just one huge bickering over the technicality of whether or not her knowledge of past non-fatal attempt(s) towards Lincoln was enough to convict her towards the actual assassination.

This film is not terrible, but by focusing such a fine spotlight on part of instead of the whole picture of the Lincoln assassination we're left with an incredibly well-made film with the pace and emotion of an educational film you'd watch in history class over Mary Surratt.