Seems like everyone is pouncing on this one. For example, Anthony Lane went all “Irreviews” on it in the New Yorker (I swear these New York critics are reading this site and getting new ideas, or at least their assistants are.) But I don’t know, I guess this film caught me in a soft mood this past Friday – for some reason it didn’t offend me that much.

From the perspective of film-making craftsmanship, The Conspirator is I concede a pretty lame movie. The music is completely generic, it’s shot through a gray filter that makes it look completely fake, and the narrative structure is a bit dull and not super-suspenseful, never a good attribute of a courtroom drama! My wife’s perfect example of its narrative failure: the scene where the defense witness suddenly changes his testimony on the stand had no dramatic impact because they failed to show the implied earlier scene containing his original testimony to McAvoy, just fundamentally bad scriptwriting. The marvelous James McAvoy doesn’t have much to do, and the even more marvelous Tom Wilkinson has even less to do. Robert Redford’s direction is pitiful – the incidental and supporting acting is atrocious, conflicting accents are all over the place (in a way that is distracting), and the camerawork is ponderous. And who the hell thought Rory Gilmore and that dude from Going the Distance would make positive additions to this kind of film?

But this movie isn’t Transformers 3, and I respect that. Redford tried to make a film that had something to say about how democracy and respect for truth, liberty, and due process of law fall by the wayside when people get scared (just like with John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Iran Contra, and 9/11). It’s remarkable how quickly and easily we Americans are willing to surrender everything and become totalitarian in tough times, almost as if deep down we doubt our democracy. Luckily we also tend to get bored with that kind of thing pretty quickly and thank heavens there is enough of the Constitution left to enable a hasty retreat from the ridiculous attitudes we adopt. I think this idea is worth making a movie about, if for no other reason to have something to watch besides Battle for LA, Thor, Green Lantern, Green Hornet, Captain America, Avengers, X-Men: First Class, Spiderman Reboot, GI Joe 2, Iron Man 3, Ant-Man, Woverine 2, Batman 3, Hancock 2, and Kick-Ass 2: Balls To The Wall.

Furthermore, I would rather people go see The Conspirator than have them sitting at home playing Homefront on their X-Box and developing a warped conviction that the United States is in real danger of military occupation by North Korea.

Is The Conspirator the kind of movie that you will return to again and again? No. Is it the kind of film that you leave the theater raving about? No. But I think Robert Redford succeeded in making a film that is worth seeing and fairly enjoyable. Given his “lack of things to do,” James McAvoy nevertheless succeeds in bringing a decently strong presence to the role that smooths out some of the film’s rough spots. The historical story is not super interesting, unfortunately, but for some reason it seems a little more interesting in the film than it actually is. Despite the film’s flaws I was pretty engaged throughout the movie, and I’m not sorry I went to see it, like I am with most movies I see in theaters. I would recommend it with reservations – don’t go expecting a timeless classic. It’s another Robert Redford mess, but it’s not all bad.