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The Conspirator

In the wake of Abraham Lincoln's assassination, seven men and one woman are arrested and charged with conspiring to kill the President, Vice President, and Secretary of State. The lone woman charged, Mary Surratt (Robin Wright), owns a boarding house where John Wilkes Booth, and others met and planned the simultaneous attacks. Against the ominous back-drop of post-Civil War Washington, newly-minted lawyer, Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy), a 28-year-old Union war-hero, reluctantly agrees to defend Surratt before a military tribunal. Aiken realizes his client may be innocent and that she is being used as bait and hostage in order to capture the only conspirator to have escaped a massive manhunt, her own son, John. As the nation turns against her, Surratt is forced to rely on Aiken to uncover the truth and save her life. (Source)

The story of Mary Surratt, a Confederate sympathizer who was tried as a conspirator in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. (Source)

Robert Redford focuses on the chaotic moment in history directly following President Lincoln's assassination to tell the story of the proud mother charged with committing the monumental crime, and the ambitious young lawyer charged with defending her in court. The Civil War has ended, and upon returning home, Union War hero Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy) endeavors to enter the world of politics by establishing himself as a lawyer. Though a high society ball provides Aiken with the unique opportunity to gain an audience with standing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (Kevin Kline), history intervenes when John Wilkes Booth fires the fateful bullet that ends the president's life. The nation engulfed in turmoil as the hunt for Booth's collaborators commences, a massive manhunt soon leads lawmen to Confederate sympathizer Mary Surratt (Robin Wright), who's son John has become a prime suspect, yet remains dubiously out of reach. Meanwhile, as the American public cries out for justice, former Attorney General Reverdy Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) persuades Aiken to act as Mrs. Surratt's defense lawyer, and the mounting pressure both in and out of the courtroom begins to weigh on the conflicted barrister's conscience as the pressure turns up on John to give himself up, and save his mother from paying for his crime in the gallows. Kevin Kline, Alexis Bledel, Evan Rachel Wood, and Justin Long co-star. - Rovi (Source)