What I Watched -- The Conspirator

Mom took K and I to see The Conspirator on Sunday night.  I had heard a bit about Mary Surratt on NPR last week, but didn't realize it was (presumably) related to this Robert Redford-directed movie about her trial.

The movie, while a little bit historical, is really a legal procedural.  Baby-faced James McAvoy carries the drama forward as Frederick Aiken, the new lawyer cutting his teeth on Mrs. Surratt's case, initially against his will.  As he comes to see what a sham her trial is, though, he not only begins to support his client but also questions his own faith in the legal system.

I could draw parallels until I'm blue in the face between this movie and the Guantanamo Bay military tribunals, but I don't want to - partially because I don't like politics, and partially because I'd rather talk briefly about the legal system's development, or lack thereof.

In my current practice, I am eternally frustrated by the inadequacies of the legal system: everything takes forever; there are procedural rules that might be useful if anyone ever bothered to follow them; however, it's no wonder they don't, because breaking the rules doesn't create garner any sanctions (what then, I ask, is the point of the rules?); some clerks - though by no means all - are useless at best and obstructionist at worst; some judges - though by no means all - can be frustratingly inconsistent from sentence to sentence, much less day to day; and for most of America, it turns out that capital-J Justice often is whatever you can afford to pay for.  I spent much of the movie thinking about then and now, and that old cliché: "the more things change, the more they stay the same."

Mary Surratt is played with a powerful combination of grace, restraint, and anger by the lovely Robin Wright.  The remainder of the star-studded cast includes Evan Rachel Wood as daughter Anna Surratt, Alexis Bledel as Freddie's girlfriend, Dodgeball's Justin Long, prolific actors Colm Meaney and Tom Wilkinson, goofball Kevin Kline, The Boondock Saints's Norman Reedus, and the recognizable but not-too-well-known Danny Huston.  One unfortunate consequence of the diverse cast: diverse accents, which distracted me a bit from the film.

Bottom line: fascinating history, but only a decent movie.  I was interested, but not enthralled, until the last few scenes when Aiken is fighting for his client's life - that's when McAvoy really hits his stride.  The colors and light are good, if pretty typical of Redford shoots; however, credits here go to McAvoy and Wright.