The Conspirator - C

On DVD. Rated PG-13, 122 minutes. Trailer.

Directed by Robert Redford, The Conspirator tells the story of the trial of Mary Surrat, Lincoln assasination co-conspirator. This seemed very promising, but the stilted direction and most boring script ever combined to make this worse than anything on the History Channel. James McAvoy is fine as Frederick Aiken, the Union war hero that is forced to take the case of Ms. Surrat (Robin Wright Penn). The whole thing has a masterpiece theater feel - which you would think Redford would try to avoid given the 19th century setting. Click below for more on the most boring movie of 2011:

Justin Long, Rachel Evan Wood, Tom Wilkinson, Kevin Kline, and Colm Meaney all prance around in costume without anything interesting going on. The film feels like a terrible version of The Scarlett Letter or To Kill A Mockingbird. There are tons of overlit 'dusty' scenes and overly staged scenes and this was a total waste of an interesting story.