THE CONSPIRATOR—“Have you ever believed in something far greater than yourself?”  Robert Redford’s 8th turn as director dealt another winning hand with a fact-based historical period piece: the 1865 trial of the handful of people known to be involved in the murder of Abraham Lincoln, in particular Mary Surratt, sharply essayed by Robin Wright.

Analogies to the impassioned judgement rush of post 9-11 America and the slippery slope of military trials for civilians add political and civics resonance to the detail-rich, carefully paced 123 minutes, with a well-chosen cast giving vibrancy to musty figures of the past.  It’s not great, but certainly laudable, and deserved a better response than the lukewarm one it received from many critics  and a sorry box-office take of $15,479,000 which sank against a budget of $25,000,000.

Take “Killing Lincoln”, that insipid junk from Bill O’Reilly, use it for mulch and instead watch Spielberg’s Lincoln with this honest and thoughtful piece as a chaser.  Able work from James McAvoy, Kevin Kline, Evan Rachel Wood, Danny Huston, Tom Burlinson, Justin Long, Norman Reedus, Colm Meany, Toby Kebbell (as John Wilkes Booth) and a great nugget from Stephen Root that’s choice enough in its brief flash to vouchsafe the movie on its own.