It may be the JFK assassination that has captured the public imagination of the generations since. But of the four presidential assassins (or seven, counting those who shot at but did not kill a president), only John Wilkes Booth is known beyond doubt to have been part of a conspiracy. And of the eight alleged conspirators tried via military tribunal in the immediate aftermath of President Lincoln’s killing, only one, Mary Surratt, was a woman. As the mother of another suspected conspirator and the owner of a boardinghouse where the Booth and other plotters had held meetings, she was either an abetter of the assassins or merely the victim of unfortunate associations. Robert Redford’s film allows for both possibilities, which makes it a fairer, if less exciting, film than, say, JFK.
This account of Surrat’s trial starts off slightly shakily. It’s a minor point, but how strange to begin a Civil War movie with soldiers telling a joke whose punch line involves a freezer. The first soldier (James McAvoy) never gets to the punch line, but still, between that and his friend being played by Apple Computer pitchman Justin Long, I was taken out of the (1863) moment. The young actors, including McAvoy, who turns out to play the main character, make no attempt at period accents. The assassination itself is staged in unexciting fashion, and the plot advanced via the newspaper clipping techniques so we can get to where the movie really begins. McAvoy is the lawyer asked to defend Surratt.
viewed at Ritz Bourse and reviewed 6/1/11
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