The Conspirator: Did Robin Wright Kill Abraham Lincoln?
[There was a video here]
Here's a trailer for The Conspirator, the Robert Redford-directed drama about Mary Surratt, the only woman tried in the Lincoln assassination conspiracy case and [spoiler alert!!] the first woman to be executed in the United States. It looks very prestige-y.
Redford has assembled quite an interesting cast. Wright and James McAvoy, as Surratt's attorney, are definitely the kind of respected actors who you'd expect to pop up in a movie like this, but in the supporting roles things get a bit more curious. Justin Long is in it! Justin Long, in a period piece? Same for the Gilmore ghoul Alexis Bledel and Broadway star turned Glee crooner Jonathan Groff. Good for them for convincing Redford and company that they're not just sunshiny moderns. They're dour period people too!
The story itself is certainly interesting. Doubt still lingers that Surratt was actually involved in the assassination plot, as there was a lot of circumstantial evidence — a picture of John Wilkes Booth hidden in her house, e.g. Maybe she was just a fan of his acting? — and some somewhat questionable testimony that was cited in her conviction. But the movie, judging from this trailer at least, actually seems more concerned with the ins and outs of the trial, with McAvoy fighting to get his client as fair treatment as possible. There's lots of bellowing about the Constitution and whatnot, so maybe the Tea Party pastryots will like it? Or maybe they're too hip to ol' Sundance's lefty ways and they'll figure it's a movie about condemning an upright Southern lady who liked the Confederacy because it was all about states rights, not for that other reason. Who knows! We'll have to wait to find out.
I, for one, am intrigued.