‘The Conspirator’ is a noble failure.

By noble, I mean that addressing the subject of Lincoln’s assassination with a feature film is brave. The release of this film is a big gamble on the public’s interest in 19th century American history, especially when that history is presented with little in the way of romance or sex appeal.

By failure I mean that the film is boring and profoundly uncinematic. The dialogue is stilted, with some actors trying to use what they must imagine to be period-correct accents and the rest opting to avoid that kind of labor altogether. Most of the time ‘The Conspirator’ comes off as a modern courtroom procedural with hoopskirts and muttonchops.

If you already understand why even guilty people merit a vigorous defense in our legal system, the amount of time characters spend being aghast at the very notion will grate on you. If you don’t know why defense lawyers are necessary you’re not likely to learn it from a movie.

Robert Redford directed, and he clearly wants you to see the parallels between that time and this. He wants to present you with an argument against military tribunals and show trials that doesn’t hit all the tender spots of today. If only he weren’t so heavy-handed with his message, he might well have created a film worth watching. As it stands, he’s created a hackneyed and obvious political statement that doesn’t have the character development or the visual style to make it a movie. You don’t need to bother with this unless you really want to hear the “I’m a Mac” guy sing old-timey songs or you think it’s still ok to use shouting news-urchins to let the audience in on a verdict. In 2011, Rob? C’mon son.