Conspiracy is a Holocaust story. It’s a true story about the German government and military leaders who assembled in secret to plan the eradication of the Jewish race. And that’s exactly how they positioned the plan – Jews as a race, not a religion and finding a way to end the bloodlines all together… across all continents.

This story was only able to be told with some degree of accuracy because the notes of one of the officials – which were supposed to be destroyed – were found after his death in the 1980’s.

Story: It is disturbing to hear, but true none-the-less. While there isn’t much to the actual story, the subject matter alone deserves some version of a decent review. The dialogue is quite detailed and precise which clearly took some thought and research. The references back to Auschwitz and the prison camps were chilling; Hearing the development of a plan that ultimately killed thousands of Jews is surreal. But, in this case, the performances were the stand-outs.

Performances: Kenneth Branagh was fantastic. It’s odd saying the portrayal of a Nazi character was fantastic, but, he was fantastic. He smiled the entire film while speaking as a bigot; While talking about death and destruction of masses of people; While proclaiming the SS and arian nation superior. Really scary to watch.

Stanley Tucci is also really good. More the dead-pan delivery, but, precise and detailed as well.

Visual: More scary. It’s set in a beautiful German Estate in the early 1940’s. While the house is picturesque, the rest of the backdrop is static. The entire film is shot at the table where the deliberations take place. Yes, there are moments when they take breaks to eat, but, they’re few. The house, the room the furnishings and the costumes make what is the look for this film. Authentic.

Rating: Conspiracy gets a B- from me. I didn’t like the subject matter at all, but, as a work of cinema, it has a place. As a mark in history, it clearly has a place because the plan was put into motion as a result of this meeting. It is history…

If you can handle hearing the development of a plan to kill thousands of people before it happens, see this film. If not, I’m sure there’s someone in hollywood working on one of this year’s Oscar nominated films… see that…