The conspirator: a riveting thriller about the assassination of US President Abraham Lincoln.

A riveting thriller directed by Robert Redford, The Conspirator tells a powerful and true story about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Seven men and one woman were arrested and charged with conspiring to kill the President, Vice President and Secretary of State. The lone woman charged, Mary Surratt (Robin Wright), 42, owned the boarding house where John Wilkes Booth (Toby Kebbell), 26, and others met and planned the simultaneous attacks.

Against the backdrop of post Civil War Washington, newly-minted lawyer, Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy), a 28-year-old Union war hero, reluctantly agrees to defend Surratt before a military tribunal. Aiken realises his client may be innocent and is being used as bait in order to capture the only conspirator to have escaped a massive manhunt, her son, John (Johnny Simmons).

As the nation turns against her, Surratt is forced to rely on Aitken to uncover the truth and save her life.

The Conspirator explores the national reaction to Lincoln's assassination in the aftermath of what was, at the time, the most shocking murder in US history. The conspirators, including Mary's son, John, had met at her boarding house and some of them roomed there. Had they discussed the assassination during those meetings? Did Mary know? Did she conspire with them? Even today we don't know.

Behind the conspiracies and the political machinations, beats the emotional heart of the film: the story of a mother and a son. Here is a mother in a desperate situation, essentially abandoned by her son. Another young man steps in and becomes a surrogate son to this mother. He stays and fights to the very end while her own son doesn't come to defend or rescue her.

The film is 123-minutes long, but the time is not noticed as the film holds you within its grasp, as you, too, try to decide Mary's guilt or innocence.

Review by Stephanie Gray, RN, Australian Red Cross Blood Service

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