The assassination took place just as the bloody Civil War was winding down, and so the Northern sentiment was still strongly anti-Rebel and a battlefield mentality still prevailed. With Lincoln dead, Secretary of War Stanton (Kevin Kline) stepped into the power vacuum and decided that the trial should be in a military court with the outcome pretty much predetermined by a community reeling from the death of the President.  “Revenge,” as her lawyer puts it, “not justice.”  Surratt ran a boardinghouse, where John Wilkes Booth and the others met to plan the murder.  Surratt’s son was a part of the conspiracy but escaped, and so the film suggests, they were using her to get to him.

Aiken is a young Union officer, just back from the fighting, and returning to his law practice, when his boss lays the job of defending “the traitor” in his lap.  He doesn’t want to have anything to do with it, but comes to see that she is probably innocent, and that the powers that be are not interested in the truth, only in “getting this behind us.”  In fact, it was this case that forced the government to mandate civilian trials for non-combatants.

It is an interesting and little-known story, but The Conspirator suffers from a script that is a way too thinly veiled and heavy-handed political allegory.  Think Gitmo and Arab-Americans in post-9/11 America. I’m all for nice political dramas, but the “hammer over your head” approach just doesn’t do it for me.  Despite wonderful casting, the characters are mainly one-dimensional and the script totally lacking in nuance.  We all know Redford can direct a wonderful movie (Ordinary People), but he totally misses the mark on this one.

(An interesting footnote at the end tells us that after Aiken left the law, he went on to become the first editor in chief at The Washington Post.)

X-Men: First Class looks and feels quite different from the typical superhero fare (of which there is much more to come this summer season). It takes place primarily in the 1960s at the height of the Cold War. The world is on the brink of nuclear Armageddon, much to the delight and machinations of age-defying mutant Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon). He is evil personified – and must be stopped. But how?

Enter mutant expert Charles Xavier (James McAvoy). At the behest of the CIA, the telepathic Xavier embarks on a mission to identify and recruit a sort of mutant Justice League. His first recruit is a tortured soul named Erik (Michael Fassbender), a “magnetic” young man who has a personal score to settle with Shaw.

The relationship between Xavier (a.k.a. Professor X) and Erik (the future “Magneto”) is an interesting and complicated one – and it serves as the true catalyst for how the heroes and villains of the X-Men Universe come to be defined.

X-Men: First Class is an action-packed drama that’s part throwback to the old Bond films and part Smallville – i.e. a look at superheroes and super villains in their formative years, coming in to their own powers and forming the alliances that will ultimately land them on the side of good or evil – or somewhere in between. As prequels go, what more can you ask for?

Fear not though; this is not a heavy Russian novel of a movie. It is a superbly well-crafted love story set inside a fascinating historical period drama. Tolstoy was born into an aristocratic family but after writing Anna Karenina and War and Peace, he developed a “radical anarcho-pacifist Christian” philosophy that fueled a utopian movement lead by worshipful Vladimir Chertkov (Paul Giamatti). Part of this philosophy was to renounce worldly goods, which created a huge problem for his wife Sofya (Mirren) who wanted their family to hang onto their wealth including the rights to all Tolstoy’s writing after his death.

Based on a biographical novel of the same name by Jay Parini, The Last Station, written and directed by Michael Hoffman (One Fine Day and Soapdish), begins in 1910, when a naïve young writer named Valentin (James McAvoy) is hired as Tolstoy’s secretary. He arrives at the Tolstoy estate to find himself thrown into the middle of a power struggle between Tolstoy’s wife Sofya and Chertkov who is determined to get Tolstoy to sign a new will. Valentin is fascinated and confused by the Tolstoys’ passionate relationship, and he soon finds himself a pawn between all the factions in the battles, keeping diaries to let each side in on what is going on in the house. At the same time, he is initiated into the ways of love by a young woman living in the Tolstoy commune, and is schooled in it further in conversations with Tolstoy himself.

Helen Mirren is extremely deserving of the Oscar nod for her portrayal of Sofya, Tolstoy’s wife, lover, muse and antagonist. No matter what she is doing — screaming, watching or seducing — you never question her love of her husband and in the end it is truly tragic. (Bring some tissues.) Christopher Plummer is also excellent as Tolstoy and his portrayal of the relationship with Sofya is probably one of the most nuanced roles of his career. I hope they both win. James McAvoy as Valentin delivers a comic coming of age tale and he definitely holds his own with these powerhouse actors. He comes to the Tolstoys with stars in his eyes and in the end has played witness to the total destruction of a marriage, but is nonetheless eager to jump back into a romance of his own with the woman he loves.

The Last Station is beautifully shot and the pacing is just right. It is what real filmmaking is all about. This is a film for grown ups and I mean that in the sense that the story is intelligent, the characters multi-dimensional and the psychological impact deeply resonant. I’d recommend it for anyone who appreciates great characters, great acting, great scriptwriting, and great direction. Can you tell I really, really liked this movie?

This book of photographs by the Countess Sophia Tolstoy looks like it could be a very interesting adjunct to the movie. And there is the original book which I will no doubt read.