Perhaps they should have called this movie The Lincoln Lawyer. Robert Redford's somewhat controversial political drama will be of great interest to history buffs.
The film takes place immediately following the death of Abraham Lincoln and follows the trial of Mary Surrat, the lone female charged as a co-conspirator in Lincoln's assassination. The Conspirator is plodding and in fact, it took me a good hour to get into it and while overall, it isn't a perfect move, there's a quite a bit here to recommend.

Robin Wright is stellar bringing vulnerability and empathy to the role of Surratt. She has a few moments in the final act that are positively heartbreaking. James McAvoy is a terrific actor, but he's miscast as Frederick Aiken--the attorney whose all but forced to defend Surratt against his own will. He does have the "young, wide eyed lawyer out to save the world" thing down, but he lacks conviction and is completely upstaged by Wright. Even more miscast is an out of place Justin Long who appears in a supporting role as Allen's colleague Nicholas Baker. He's a likable enough actor, but in The Conspirator, he hasn't the chops (or the screen time) to earn acceptance in this role, and his mustache was downright distracting.

I remember some critics taking Matthew Broderick to task in Glory over twenty years ago. Long should take a bit of the sting off. With The Conspirator, Redford is working in an arena that Oliver Stone would feel perfectly at home in, and while I'm not entirely certain how much of this film is speculative and how much is historically accurate (I must confess, I'm not much of a history buff), I admire the the film-makers' eye for detail (aside from Long's mustache). The look of the film (art direction, costumes, etc.) is stunning and Redford gets a lot of mileage out of a wonderful supporting cast (Kevin Kline, Colm Meaney, Stephen Root, Evan Rachel Wood, Tom Wilkinson, and Danny Huston are all terrific). In the end though, its Robin Wright's show. She helps keep the The Conspirator from turning into a history channel movie of the week.