The Conspirator is another American Civil war drama from a country whose limited history demands rehashing every few years. Once you have told the bigger stories, from TV’s John Adams to the few decent films like Ed Zwick’s Glory, there is little to tell that has not had another interpretation come before it. The Conspirator is a niche story dredged from the confines of an irrelevant closet, from a TV show set near where something may have happened once, maybe.
Beginning in Washington, we see Lincoln’s assassination and the resulting manhunt for his assassin, Booth and his co-conspirators, allegedly Booths right hand man, John Surrat is the only missing party,and in being unaccountable his mother(Robin Wright) is put in his place and presumed,unjustly to be tried in his absence.
This is,regardless of its historical, context very much a by the numbers court room drama,James McAvoy’s Fredrick Aiken is the underdog regulated to a an unwinable trail by Senator/Mentor Tom Wilkinson whose stoic defiance of the nations thirst for vengeance refuses to try a citizen without a proper trial. As soon as we are introduced to Wilkinsons character he is almost immediately dismissed to background politics,and with bizarre speed we find McAvoy’s previous refusal to try an obvious traitor to the backbone of her defence,whose trial is an attack on the very constitution itself. Once court begins it is everything you can imagine,giant modern corporations are replaced by generals,the prosecution are evil Unionists bent on calming the populous,and itself run is in a military court. Its standard proceedings from here,surprise/Lying witness’s clamber and fuddle their way through the motions,with a ghostly but well fed hunger stricken victim being jailed for her sons cowardices. McAvoy though relishes the opportunity to show off,especially amongst such company as Kevin Kline,Colin Meany,Wright and Wilkinson and oddly enough and beautifully moustached Justin Long,doing their part for American history that should cover all actors for at least 2 years worth of we love America flag waving silliness. Being a by numbers script there needs to be tight wound breasts to heave,here we are treated to the idiot Gilmore Girl(not the one you want to see naked) love interest wedged in and being absolutely annoying and about as relevant as the Optimus Prime speech I could here from the next screen over.
It does however look quite beautiful,its lit as natural as possible, the court scenes are bathed in natural light and night scenes are light by torches, lamps and moonlight,often overexposed but simply but worn sets reflect sunshine around houses that create a worn but lived in and believable setting. The obligatory voice over leads to closure and the mandatory revelation of character post trial lives,its not in any way a spoiler to learn McAvoys character eventually becomes the first editor of the Washington Post,but the fact that this information was not a part of the dramatic cycle of the film,to me that’s a storey greater that this one,why instead of an hour of regurgitated courtroom waffle,cannot the film evolve into a how this case spawned something bigger,that is film that would be inherently more interesting. But America loves its idea of History too much to ever deter from it. Lincoln didn’t actually abolish slavery,just in the states that were rebellious to the union,the North post Civil war had more than a million slaves,or Lincoln’s son’s life was saved by Booths brother years prior,the real even small history is often so much more fun.
