Early winter, 1942, in a snowy, idyllic mountainside manor in Wanssee just outside of Berlin, the top Nazi brass, representing the major bureaus of the party, gather for a top secret summit to discuss the Fuehrer's latest dictate: the Final Solution and how it will be practically carried out and streamlined. Hosted by a meticulous Adolf Eichmann (Stanley Tucci) and presided over by the suave and cunning Heydrich (Kenneth Branagh), the men casually drink, jest, smoke, and eat while laying the groundwork for the deportation and extermination of the Jews from Greater Germany. Drawn from the only known copy of the meeting's minutes, Frank Pierson's Conspiracy, which plays like a perverse adaptation of 12 Angry Men, is a brilliant, chilling, and intelligent imagining of the odious gathering and gives striking insight into the personalities that colluded to found such unthinkable atrocities. The cast is top shelf, with Branagh, Tucci, and Colin Firth (playing an attorney concerned with the legalities involved) standing out.
**** out of ****
