We’ve heard this looong rumored and it’s basically been listed everywhere (IMDB), but not confirmed, but we’ve been told that Johnny Simmons is one the last pieces of the casting puzzle in Robert Redford’s “The Conspirator” (pictured above is Justin Long who’s grown a stache for his role as McAvoy’s one-armed best friend).
The “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” actor (who also had a part in “Jennifer’s Body”) has been cast as John Surratt, the conspiring son of Mary Surratt (Robin Wright Penn) in the film. It’s a small, but key role. Actor James Badge Dale (a role in “The Departed”) also has a small role as William Hamilton, a former friend of Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy) who now believes him to be a Judas figure for defending Surratt.
“Inter Arma Silent Leges – In time of war, the law is silent.”
Which brings us to the script. With the addition of Danny Huston about a week or so ago, every major role has now been finalized.
And many outlets — including us — have remarked how stellar the cast is for this post-Civil War period drama based on true events following the assassination of President Lincoln.
It is an impressive line-up that includes McAvoy, Wright, Evan Rachel Wood, Tom Wilkinson, Toby Kebbell, Kevin Kline and Alexis Bledel and is essentially about Mary Surratt (Wright Penn), an alleged accomplice and conspirator of Abraham Lincoln’s assassin John Wilkes Booth (Kebbell) and the reluctant lawyer (McAvoy) who is tasked with defending her.
Many have thought, with all this talent and the weighty subject matter, Redford would easily be contending for Oscar gold next year (the film’s shooting now so will presumably be released in the fall of 2010), but having just finished the script, we’re not sure we’d call it a full-on slam dunk.
Presumably there will still be 10 Best Picture nominations for the Oscars in 2010 (providing this year isn’t a total fiasco?), but if there weren’t, “The Conspirator” could be one of those films on the edges — like a “Gran Torino,” “Changeling,” or “Charlie Wilson’s War.” Films that people talk about a lot during Oscar season, but that generally came up empty handed where nominations are concerned (yes, ‘Wilson’s War’ scored a Best Supporting, but many talked it up as a Best Picture favorite).
Written by James Solomon (a lot of TV including episodes of “The Bronx Is Burning,” and “The Practice”), “The Conspirator,” starts out as a well-executed and page-turning script, but by the time it concludes rather anticlimatically, it feels more like a fairly conventional and safe, courtroom/period piece drama with lots of lawyer chestbeating and speeches about our freedoms and rights.
And in many ways it’s a post 9/11 parable cum cautionary tale about governments abusing their powers during times of war. And in this respect it gets pedantic in it’s truthy seekingness.
Tom Wilkinson plays U.S. Maryland Senator Reverdy Johnson, the attorney who believes that Surratt deserves a fair trial and is entitled to a proper defense, despite what the bloodthirsty nation and vengeful War Department — hellbent on trying the case as a prejudice military trial despite the Civil War being over by months — think. There’s tons of what seem like, not-so-subtle nods to the Bush Administration exploitation of 9/11 as a means to justify their ends in Iraq and the unfair treatment of suspects in the name of the War on Terror (Surrat’s imprisonment feels a lot like code for Guantanamo).
But since John Wilkes Booth was a Confederate sympathizer who essentially assassinated Lincoln for revenge in the South’s defeat in the American Civil War, the country was still divided into Northern/Southern camps. And since Reverdy is a Southerner who is mocked during the beginning of the trial by the wartime generals, he feels the only course is to have a war hero and Yankee colonel (McAvoy’s character) defend her instead.
Initially, McAvoy’s Aiken is extremely reluctant; he believes her to be guilty too. But because Reverdy is a longtime mentor figure, the educated rookie eventually relents to his passionate pleas and academic arguments. “Fear is the most potent weapon in the Secretary’s arsenal!” he declares while quoting Cicero (see quote above). And constantly reminds Aiken that while he is so eager to toss away Surrat’s rights and throw her to the wolves, he too may need those “god given rights” one day. Yes, it’s preachy.
But Aiken is faced with an extremely biased kangaroo court that manipulate and twist the case in their favor. It’s practically a joke and meanwhile the attorney’s friends, family and supporters desert him, thinking him a traitor for having the audacity to defend someone the public court of opinion has already thought dead guilty.
While there is drama and intrigue and the first half of the script is strong, especially when Aiken slowly starts to believe in Surratt’s innocence in the face of all adversity, in Redford’s Liberal, message-friendly and often didactic hands (you saw “Lions for Lambs”), we’re not completely convinced this is going to fully sail. Further worrisome, the “villains” in the film (Kevin Kline, Danny Huston), the black-and-white bad guy prosecution with moustaches (stand-ins for Cheney and co?) are largely one-note.
Regardless if Redford decides to not underline every moment, the conclusion is weak (as it just follows history) and what should be tragic, largely feels a bit tedious and pedestrian. As always, it’s in the execution. But we wouldn’t put our money down right yet, as this feels like the classical Oscar-bait of the ’90s, not modern day classicism that voters seem to have tired of (thank god). But maybe the performances can elevate the so-so material. We’ll see.