20 for 2010 - The Conspirator

Number 16 on my countdown is Robert Redford's The Conspirator.



Last August, when celebrating Robert Redford's 72nd birthday, I said that I still believe he has another great film in him. Lo and behold, one day later, this project was announced.

Based on the true story of Mary Surratt (Robin Wright Penn) who was the lone female accused of involvement in the conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln, largely because she owned the boarding house John Wilkes Booth resided in. The film will focus on her reluctant lawyer (Tom Wilkinson) as he slowly uncovers the truth and attempts to save her from the hangman. I'm not sure how James McAvoy's Fredrick Aiken (above) fits into the picture, but I assume he also is convinced of her innocence as he is, ostensibly, the lead.



SPOILERS - It doesn't work, Mary Surratt was the first woman executed by the US federal Government.

This mix of liberalist ideals, courtroom dramas and heady conspiracies is exactly the sort of thing that Redford excels at, imagine Quiz Show with TV replaced by the government desperate to please the calls of a angry public. The supporting cast sports some excellent names too including Danny Huston, Kevin Kline and Evan Rachel Wood.

I'm also hoping this could finally be the project that gets some awards traction for Robin Wright Penn, she has been a well respected actress putting in fine work for years, and this role as a doomed suffering mother in a period biopic should be just down the Academy's street.

With Spielberg's long gestating Lincoln biopic still on hold this is the 19th century story that demands to be heard.