The Conspirator

The Conspirator (2010)


Writer: James Solomon
Director: Robert Redford
Starring: James McAvoy, Robin Wright

Synopsis
the tale of poor mary suratt, the first woman to be put to death in this wonderful country of ours. she was accused of helping john wilkes booth and the lot of conspiring to kill abraham lincoln, the president made famous by his mistreatment and government sanctioned slaughter of the native americans...i mean winning the civil war single handedly? whatever. back to mary suratt. her son was in on the assasination plot and was the only one to escape for a loooong time, but because she owned the boarding house where the plot was hatched, she was obviously in on it and had a mockery of a trial and was put to death. oh, and this is all told from the point of her attorney/union war hero/eventually disgraced and "traitorous" even though he's totally right attorney.

The Woman
this was really weird. i watched a history channel show on this subject back when the history channel used to play stuff like that and not just pawn stars, american pickers, and hicks with lots of guns, and the crazy thing is that show caught and held my interest and came off more exciting than this dramatization. with well known actors might i add. this was boring and slow. it also came off as weirdly low budget. something was off about it and i can't put my finger on it. like a canadian production for PBS or something. the music was way over bearing and almost laughable at times, and the acting came off like a stage play. then i sit through it all, and it turns out to be a robert redford movie. i thought that guy knew how to make stuff like movies. i guess there's "a river runs through it" which i personally have never made it through i think it's so god awful boring. so i guess there's that. oh. and didn't he make 'the horse whisperer' too?  i've personally never tried that one, but it's famed for being awful and boring, right? maybe he doesn't know after all. huh.

anyway. this is a really interesting subject to me. also kind of timeless issues with the recent ending of war and fear and the government railroading people to make the general public feel safer and vindicated, but little baby jesus in a soft taco shell it just didn't work in this thing.

it also kind of irked me that this was made by the american film blah, blah, blah production company, about a pretty huge event in american history and starred three UK actors in major roles. i guess i'll give you colm meaney because, let's face it, that guy is in EVERYTHING. seriously, turn on any movie you've got, and he's probably in it somewhere.

p.s. that tag line is awful. i don't remember hearing any publicity about this movie. maybe it's because everyone, but me had already recognized that apparently robert redford is not great at making movies....