Surrat's guilt is the most dubious of all those convicted in the crime, which also makes her one of the most interesting forgotten characters in this nation's history. A quiet, devout Southern woman, Surrat's politics are left up in the air for the purposes of this story. A widow, she runs the boarding house basically alone and pays little attention to the customers she takes in. Without so much as a word she takes in the likes of Booth and his cohorts as they plan what is intended to be a kidnapping of the President. Surrat's son, John, becomes an integral piece in the equation. His involvement raises questions about just how much she actually knew. When the authorities come sweeping in, she's arrested immediately while John flees.
Left in a cold prison in solitary confinement, she refuses to answer questions about her son's whereabouts or confirm or deny any involvement by her family. The government, mostly personified by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton(Kevin Kline) is pushing desperately for a swift conviction in order to appease the angry populace. With little chance of being found innocent and nobody willing to defend her, she finds unexpected hope in her fresh faced but confident lawyer, Fredereick Aiken(James McAvoy). At first he doesn't want to take the case but is pushed into it by his superiors. He soon finds that there's much more to this case, and Surrat herself, than he anticipated.
Redford, a fierce liberal activist, has never shied away from making films that speak to the often corrupt nature of our government. Even here he takes a moment or two to draw parallels between the bullying practices of Congress and some of the actions taken by this country's previous administration. It's done in a more subtle way than usual this time, thankfully. He shoots the film with great care, and his representation of the time period is flawless. The clothes, the attitude, the atmosphere of the era is absolutely perfect. There's a no-nonsense approach to his filmmaking that I love. It reminds me in a lot of ways of the work Clint Eastwood does. The old veterans do it best. That combined with a reserved but powerful performance by Wright are the film's strongest points. James McAvoy is solid, as expected, and the rest of the surprisingly young cast are more than up to the challenge. In particular Evan Rachel Wood is impressive as Surrat's daughter, stuck between watching her mother suffer in prison and turning in her wayward brother.
If only there were a bit more sizzle to go with the very standard meat and potatoes we're served here. Too often the film feels like someone was filming lines from the Mary Surrat Wikipedia entry. There's very little excitement or drama. It's all very by-the-numbers. Surrat is a fascinating figure who led a simple life that suddenly got much bigger than she expected. Her story deserves an equally large film.
