Robin Wright and James McAvoy in “The Conspirator.”
Arriving the same week as the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, Robert Redford’s “The Conspirator” is an absorbing drama that depicts the wrenching conflict’s long-forgotten aftermath: a reunited nation where constitutional protections were suspended following the shocking assassination of President Lincoln.
This fact-based story, which plays up parallels to the panic that gripped post-9/11 America, focuses on Mary Surratt, the first woman to be executed by the United States.
She was convicted by a military tribunal for her supposed role in Lincoln’s assassination while he was watching a play at Ford’s Theatre — an episode, including the confusion that followed, that is vividly re-created by Redford.
The evidence against Surratt (played with compelling restraint by Robin Wright) was purely circumstantial: She ran a Washington boarding house where assassin John Wilkes Booth and Surratt’s son John met with other conspirators to plot a scheme, later abandoned, to abduct Lincoln.
After the president’s murder, Booth was quickly killed while eluding capture. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (an excellent Kevin Kline) decides Mrs. Surratt should be tried in a military court — rather than a civilian one — with the other defendants, in the hope it will flush her fugitive son out of hiding.
Stanton’s kangaroo court — which precludes Surratt from testifying and openly condones outrageous perjury by witnesses provided by the arrogant prosecutor (Danny Huston) — offends the sensibilities of Reverdy Johnson (Tom Wilkinson), a senator from Maryland.
Knowing she will have an even worse chance being defended by a Southerner, he assigns his protégé, Frederic Aiken (James McAvoy), a decorated Union war hero, to defend her before the tribunal.
At first Aiken is totally convinced of Surratt’s guilt, something that isn’t helped by his client’s refusal to assist in her own defense out of the fear she will implicate her son.
But he begins to change his mind after enlisting the very reluctant cooperation of her daughter Anna (an impressive Evan Rachel Wood) who provides exculpatory evidence.
Aiken faces a formidable opponent in Stanton, who has imposed martial law on the capital city and strongly feels the harshest possible verdict — achieved by any means necessary — is required to prevent the country from slipping back into war.
If Mary Surratt is indeed innocent, she’s acceptable collateral damage as far as Stanton is concerned.
The casting of the very contemporary Justin Long and Alexis Bledel as Aiken’s best friend and fiancee — who grow increasingly disenchanted with Aiken’s ardent defense of his client — are something of a distraction.
Redford also sometimes lets the pace lag over the course of two hours, particularly in the talky courtroom scenes.
But director always pulls you back into this well-acted, still timely story. Working on an obviously limited budget on locations in Savannah, Ga., Redford does a good job of evoking the era with the help of cinematographer Newton Thomas Siegel.
Screenwriter James Solomon alternates scenes from the stacked tribunal with the drama unfolding in the outside world, including the hunt for John Suratt (who was finally captured in Egypt after his mother’s execution and let go after a civilian jury failed to reach a verdict).
“The Conspirator” doesn’t hit you over the head with its liberal political message.
It’s not hard to see the resemblance between Stanton, who thought it his patriotic duty to take command during the weak presidency of Andrew Johnson, and Dick Cheney. But he’s not presented as an all-out villain either.
Redford’s history lesson illustrates the old maxim that those who forget history are bound to repeat it.
lou.lumenick@nypost.com