Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 17, 2011

This may be a talky court drama, competent rather than inspired, but the fact that it is based on truth lends its argument force.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 1, 2011

A very stately, bland piece of work, perhaps best shown to high school history classes.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 30, 2011

Makes you pause and consider, not the fragility of justice and human rights in extreme circumstances, but the fusty and enfeebled condition to which Robert Redford's filmmaking has sunk.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 30, 2011

American studies A-level students will find all this useful, and Redford's son is less likely to ask the director, as he reportedly did during the filming of The Horse Whisperer: "Why are you doing this crap?"

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 29, 2011

A solid historical drama that carries a few too many political messages.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 27, 2011

Atmospheric, illuminating and affecting, The Conspirator captivates like an untold story -- one that you can't believe you've never heard until now, and won't soon forget.

| Original Score: A- | May 6, 2011

Ultimately, The Conspirator showcases a lead actor in search of a better movie and fascinating source material worthy of a grander vision.

| Apr 29, 2011

Once the ideological cat is out of the bag, the drama is degraded to the level of a historical pageant.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 29, 2011

Leaves us feeling as empty as a raided tomb.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 28, 2011

A bracing courtroom drama whose every scene seems wreathed in mist, dust motes and cigar smoke, the better to suggest a nation befogged by grief.

| Apr 22, 2011

There's a stiffness that keeps the story from packing a punch. Still, it's handsomely mounted, and at its best moments has the patina of a Masterpiece Theater production.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 17, 2011

It's like someone handed screenwriter James D. Solomon and director Robert Redford a gong marked 'Guantanamo Bay' so they could strike it over and over for two hours.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 15, 2011

The nightmare of Lincoln's assassination, and its immediate aftermath, is effectively delivered, and Wright, shrouded in black, her face a mask of indomitable sorrow, gives great gravity to what might otherwise have been a waxworks historical reenactment.

| Original Score: B- | Apr 15, 2011

James McAvoy, as the Civil War veteran who defends Surratt, has an avid presence, but the movie is stiff-jointed and dull.

| Original Score: C | Apr 15, 2011

A better history lesson than it is a drama.

| Apr 15, 2011

Once you accustom yourself to this film's unhurried rhythm and old-fashioned Hollywood stolidity, The Conspirator is not without its pleasures -- chief among them Robin Wright's quietly fierce performance.

| Apr 15, 2011

The Conspirator fairly drips with nobility, timeliness and class. If only it were a bit more fiery.

| Original Score: C+ | Apr 15, 2011

There's nothing more frustrating than wanting a movie to be great and having to admit that it falls short. At one point during The Conspirator I found myself willing it to be...

Full Review | Original Score: 2.1/2 | Apr 15, 2011

The Conspirator is a quality drama with a capital Q. We should expect no less from Robert Redford, who takes seriously (at times, earnestly) the duties of director.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 15, 2011