I thought The Conspirator was an above average movie. I liked that during the court scenes the film would cut to flashbacks of what Mary was being questioned about. This helped the audience know exactly what happen. If they had shown all these scenes in the beginning of the film, I would probably not remember what they were referencing when the court scenes came.
I felt the scene where Sarah is upset that Fred is going to continue working as Mary's lawyer was suppose to add dramatic tension, but I did not feel it was necessary. The stakes were high enough, if he loses this case Mary will be hung. The fact that Fred's relationship may be under strain is small compared to the literal life or death position Mary is in.
The pacing of this film was consistent and smooth, I felt the tension build as the case came to an end. Since it was so smooth the scene where Mary is hung almost came as a surprise because everything up until then was rather tame. The only reason I felt stress was because they said she would die if she didn't win this case, not because the editing or filming made me feel stress.
I appreciated that this film was different than the other Lincoln films I've seen. Lincoln is shot in the beginning of the film and the rest focuses on what happened afterwards. From what I know, there a not a lot of stories about the specific people, such as Mary, who may not have known Lincoln very well, but had an effect in his life.
I thought it was an interesting choice for the film to focus on Fred instead of Mary. Mary is the one with the biggest consequence in the movie. If in real life they had more information than what Mary shared with her lawyer, than the movie should have focused on her. For example, if she had kept a journal or her daughter confessed other information the audience could watched Mary's life at this time and what she did, then cut to the conversation with her lawyer, showing that she does not want to tell him much. Throughout the entire film it was difficult to tell what Mary actually didn't know or when she was lying to keep her son safe. For example, when Mary says she didn't recognize the preacher who visited her, I ended up believing that she genuinely did not recognize him. Hearing Mary's thoughts while the trail is happening would have been helpful for the audience to know what was real or not. Of course, if in real life there are no solid answers, I can understand why the movie focuses on Fred, because there is more information about him.
Review of The Conspirator
