Film tells story of Lincoln assassin’s ‘Conspirator’
Available this week on DVD:
“The Conspirator”: Robin Wright is exceptional as Mary Surratt, who owned the boardinghouse where John Wilkes Booth hatched plans to assassinate President Lincoln and was charged in connection with the murder, in this provocative film from Robert Redford. (2:02; PG-13 for some violent content) • • •
“Jane Eyre”: In Cary Joji Fukunaga’s moody adaptation of Charlotte Bronte’s 1847 novel, Mia Wasikowska (“Alice in Wonderland”) progresses from a woman-child scared of her own shadow to someone who, after a long eclipse, comes into the light. Michael Fassbender is magnetic as Rochester, Jane’s employer. (2:01; PG-13 for some thematic elements including a nude image and brief violent content) • • •
“Something Borrowed”: A dull prenup romantic triangle starring Kate Hudson as Darcy, smug bride-to-be, and Ginnifer Goodwin as Rachel, submissive maid of honor, who belatedly realizes, oops! – she’s in love with Dex (Colin Egglesfield), the charmless groom. From the novel by Emily Giffin. (1:43; PG-13 for sexual content including dialogue, and some drug material) • •
“Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil”: Hayden Panettiere replaces Anne Hathaway as the voice of Little Red Riding Hood in this sequel, a hopped-up, “Shrek”-ian mash of Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm, teetering with pop culture references and wisecracking anthropomorphic sidekicks. There’s no real story, or purpose (beyond the obvious one of making money), just lots of high tech, “Mission: Impossible”-style action and “Kill Bill” martial arts and mysticism. (1:25; PG for some mild rude humor, language and action) • •
“The Grace Card”: Steeped in Christian tenets of forgiveness, brotherhood and prayer, and rife with earnest platitudes about race and family, this overwrought melodrama tracks a white Memphis police officer as he struggles to deal with the loss of a child, a crumbling marriage, a troubled teenage son and his own racial prejudices and rage. Well-meaning, to be sure, this evangelical soap calls out for, well, absolution. (1:41; PG-13 for violence and thematic elements) • •
“Priest”: Director Scott Charles Stewart and star Paul Bettany, who bored us to death with 2009’s apocalyptic thriller “Legion,” return with another yawn-inducing actioner. Bettany is a member of an elite church-trained team that hunts down vampires. (1:27; PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, disturbing images and brief strong language) •