The Company You Keep

Cast of Characters:
Jim Grant/Nick Sloan - Robert Redford
Ben Shepard - Shia LaBeouf
Mimi Lurie - Julie Christie
Mac Mcleod - Sam Elliott
Henry Osborne - Brendan Gleeson
Agent Cornelius - Terrence Howard
Jed Lewis - Richard Jenkins
Agent Diana - Anna Kendrick
Rebecca Osborne - Brit Marling
Ray Fuller - Stanley Tucci
Donal Fitzgerald - Nick Nolte
Daniel Sloan - Chris Cooper
Sharon Solarz - Susan Sarandon

Director - Robert Redford
Screenplay - Lem Dobbs
Based on the novel “The Company You Keep” by Neil Gordon
Rated R for language

      Academy Award winners Robert Redford, Julie Christie, Chris Cooper, Susan Sarandon, as well as Academy Award nominees Terrence Howard, Richard Jenkins, Anna Kendrick, Stanley Tucci, and Nick Nolte star in the Robert Redford directed political thriller, The Company You Keep. Holy hell! What a cast.

      Nick Sloan (Robert Redford) is a former radical Weather Underground activist now living in Albany, New York, working as a defense attorney under the identity of Jim Grant. Upon hearing of the arrest of former friend and fellow Weather Underground activist Sharon Solarz (Susan Sarandon) for the murder of a bank security guard, Nick begins to worry that he may be in trouble. 

      Seeing a story that can't be missed, an ambitious, young reporter named Ben Shepard (Shia LaBeouf) begins to question those possibly involved in that Weather Underground bank robbery that led to the death of an innocent man, Sharon and Nick included. Ben's boss, Ray Fuller (Stanley Tucci), is at first uninterested, but when Ben starts to show some signs of a national front page story in the making, Fuller asks for a follow up.

      Nick, a single father with an eleven year old daughter, now fearing he may be the next one arrested, sets out to clear his name. Wanting to protect his daughter, he sends her over to his brother, Daniel Sloan (Chris Cooper). He then meets up with other former Weather Underground activists such as Donal Fitzgerald (Nick Nolte) and Jed Lewis (Richard Jenkins) asking for the whereabouts of the one activist that holds the key to his cleared name, Mimi Lurie (Julie Christie). Unlike Nick, who insists he's innocent and was not at the robbery, Mimi was there and has been on the lam for the past thirty years. Having changed priorities with a young daughter, Nick wants nothing more than to move on from his troubled past for the sake of his girl. If he can get Mimi to confess her part in the crime, he will be cleared of all wrongdoing.

      Robert Redford is not only one of the greatest actors of the past fifty years, he's also proven himself to be a very effective director in films such as Ordinary People (Of which he won a Best Director Oscar), A River Runs Through It, and Quiz Show. Obviously, it seems a little far fetched that Shia LaBeouf's journalist manages to be a step ahead of the FBI in putting the pieces of the puzzle together, and the revelations near the end seem a bit too "connect the dots". That being said, this is still a quiet, yet slightly engaging political thriller with an extremely talented cast. Despite the top heavy cast, no one's really a scene stealer here, although Julie Christie is particularly good as the frustratingly narcissistic activist, still "fighting the power" after all the other Weather Underground members have moved on. I've never been much of a fan of LaBeouf's before. As much as I loved Lawless, I felt he was a bit overshadowed by the remaining cast. Here, I gotta give him credit, he holds his own against the Oscar winning acting veterans. Redford clearly knows how to direct with a competent style and although there are moments that seem underwhelming, this film still has its share of inspired moments.

     This film's far from perfect. It certainly doesn't rank up there with the great Redford directed films of the past. I'm not saying rush out and see this right away, but this is still worth your time. The premise is intriguing and the performances from a terrific cast are uniformly top-notch. I give The Company You Keep a B (★★★).