Directed by: Robert Redford
Starring: James McAvoy, Robin Wright, Tom Wilkinson, Evan Rachel Wood
Rated: PG-13

Robin Wright and James McAvoy star in The Conspirator. (Courtesy photo)

If we are to believe that the opening and closing minutes of a movie are the most memorable, then The Conspirator won’t be remembered with much fondness. It’s a real shame, because everything except the opening and closing five minutes was actually pretty good. And, impressively for a based-on-a-true-story movie, it strays very little from the actual truth.

The Conspirator begins with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the capture of several alleged conspirators in the crime. Scandalously, one of those conspirators is a woman, Mary Surratt (Robin Wright, Forrest Gump), whose son John is on the lam somewhere and whose daughter Anna (Evan Rachel Wood, The Wrestler) is at home, unsure of both her brother and her mother’s innocence. Seasoned lawyer and former Attorney General Reverdy Johnson (Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton) steps in to defend Mary at trial, along with Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy, Atonement), a lawyer who recently returned from fighting for the Union in the final months of the Civil War. The trial is a sham, though, the guilty verdict already decided; Johnson quits the case in frustration, leaving Aiken defending a Confederacy-born traitor against his Union superiors. Aiken doesn’t want to be seen as the enemy for defending a traitor, but he knows the right thing to do is to stick to the Constitution, even if it hurts.

The film was put out by the brand-new American Film Company, a production company whose purpose is to make historically accurate movies, so The Conspirator is a field day for everyone who wishes history didn’t get sold out for the sake of theatrics all the time. In this case, thankfully, we don’t compromise either side, although the movie isn’t without its flaws. First-time screenwriter James D. Solomon’s script occasionally crosses over into the realm of Ye Olde Times over-formality, which in turn hampers some of the supporting performances. Generally, though, the script moves along at a comfortable pace, and Robert Redford (Lions for Lambs) brings his vision to fruition beautifully, albeit with perhaps a bit too much moral outrage.

Unfortunately, Redford doesn’t direct his actors anywhere special. McAvoy, Wright, and Wood have great characters, but all their performances feel a little incomplete. Wright is probably the best of the lot, even if she looks a little young for the part. McAvoy is good enough for the lead role, certainly, but he lacks the power needed to play Aiken to his full potential. The same goes for Wood as Anna Surratt, although since the role is smaller, any shortcomings have less of an overall impact. Wilkinson, meanwhile, is inconsistent as McAvoy’s superior, at times sounding forlorn and passive, at other times fiery and aggressive. Minor complaints, in the long run; the actors work well together, as a whole, even if no one is going to knock you out of your seat with theatrical brilliance.

What The Conspirator lacks, then, is hard to say. When it’s good, it’s great. But when it’s bad, it’s awkward. It could be due to the writing, it could be due to the acting, it could be due to the weighty Justice-with-a-capital-J theme. Likely it’s some combination, as well as a bad opening and a terribly unsatisfying ending. We know halfway through watching that there won’t be a happy ending, so that’s not a surprise, but the “16 months later” tags at the end of the movie make us wonder why Redford didn’t just show us what happened after the trial instead of telling us. Yes, it’s all well and nice that the American Film Company has made a historically accurate movie, but it raises the question, where do you draw the line between fictionalizing a true story and relating the actual events?  In the end, The Conspirator leaves us wondering, more than anything else, about just how much accuracy is really necessary in a movie. Truth might be stranger than fiction, but it’s hard to say whether it makes for good cinema. It does here, for the most part, but I’m not entirely convinced yet; convincing us, then, will be the American Film Company’s main challenge as it moves on to its next feature film.

Danny Eisenberg is a 2010 graduate of the Bromfield School and is currently a student at the University of Pennsylvania.