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For nearly 50 years, Robert Redford has been on quest to prove he is more than a golden boy matinee idol.

Of course, Redford has succeeded in spectacular fashion, starring in such classics as "The Candidate," " Three Days of the Condor " and " All the President's Men "; winning the Oscar for directing " Ordinary People " (somehow besting Martin Scorsese and " Raging Bull "), and founding the Sundance Film Festival.

He is legend. The notion Redford became a star only because of his looks is as ludicrous as someone saying Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was a great basketball player only because of his height.

Yet like so many great stars before him, Redford, now 76, steadfastly refuses to go gently into that good grandfatherhood. In "The Company You Keep," he looks and moves like a really fit, handsome 76-year-old — a real distraction, given he's playing a former 1970s radical who now has an 11-year-old daughter and is living a quiet life under an assumed name.

OK, sure, guys in their 60s become fathers — but the timeline of "The Company You Keep" tells us Nick Sloan (Redford) is a former member of the Weather Underground wanted for his part in a bank robbery from some 30 years ago in which a security guard was killed. So was Sloan in his mid-40s at the time — or are we supposed to believe he's about 60 now?

This is but one of the distractions in "The Company You Keep" that kept me at a distance. Despite Redford's sure-handed (but typically stolid) direction, an intriguing premise and a cast filled with top-line talent both veteran and relatively new, nearly every scene had me asking questions about what just transpired when I should have been absorbing what was happening next.

In casting almost too perfect, Susan Sarandon plays Sharon Solarz, a Vermont housewife who waves goodbye to her husband and teenage children, and prepares herself to be arrested for her part in that long-ago bank robbery. Why now? Her motivation isn't entirely clear. When Solarz grants a jailhouse interview to hungry young reporter Ben Shepard ( Shia LeBeouf ), she justifies/rationalizes the Weather Underground's use of violence, while he just sits there lapping it up. It's up to an FBI agent ( Anna Kendrick ) to call bull---- and tell Ben she found Solarz's speech offensive. (She's right.)

Meanwhile, the walls are closing in on Nick and other members of the Underground, including a grizzled old radical named Donal ( Nick Nolte ) and Mimi ( Julie Christie ), Nick's former lover, who's still beautiful and still full of righteous "Fight the Power" radicalism.

The top-heavy casting almost works against the story, despite the talents of all involved. Hey, there's Chris Cooper as Nick's brother, whom he hasn't seen in 20 years! Look, Richard Jenkins as another former Weatherman, now teaching! And hey, Stanley Tucci as the obligatory "In my office, now!" newspaper editor, and Terrence Howard as the determined FBI investigator! And sure enough, that's gravel-voiced Sam Elliott as yet another former radical. It's almost an upset we don't get Christopher Walken as the Guy Who Made the Bombs or Jane Fonda as the War Protester.

When Nick finds Mimi in a remote cabin, "The Company You Keep" assumes the tone of a bittersweet romance. Their exchanges are just…perfect. Nolte provides comic relief, and Jenkins is utterly believable as Jed, the professor who reluctantly assists Nick and then tells him, "Please believe me when I say I hope I never see you again."

It's difficult to believe that Shepard, the small-time, ethically challenged, marginally talented newspaper reporter, is able to find so many answers that eluded the FBI for decades. As "The Company You Keep" adds more characters and ladles on the soap-opera twists, we get further and further away from those early, riveting scenes with Sarandon (who disappears from the movie) and other Weather people now living law-abiding lives under assumed names.

As for Nick Sloan, he's the one ex-Weatherman character we don't believe as a former activist so committed to the cause he would engage in acts of domestic terrorism on American soil. Of course a lot of real-life radicals from the 1960 and 1970s served their time, expressed their regrets and then created productive, peaceful lives for themselves. (Some haven't apologized enough or been punished enough to suit everyone.) But this community-oriented, tousle-haired senior citizen who likes to go for morning runs and dotes on his young daughter? THIS guy was running with outlaw rebels who believed such acts as bombing government buildings and robbing banks and killing innocent family men such as that security guard were justifiable?

Neither the script nor Redford's performance ever leads us to believe he was ever the kind of guy who would keep that kind of company, even back in the day. 

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The Company You Keep (2013)

Rated R language

157 minutes

Robert Redford as Jim Grant

Shia LaBeouf as Ben Shepard

Julie Christie as Mimi Lurie

Anna Kendrick as Diana

Stanley Tucci as Ray Fuller

Sam Elliott as Mac McLeod

Susan Sarandon as Sharon Solarz

• Robert Redford
• Neil Gordon

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Movie Reviews

Robert redford keeps revolutionary'company'.

Mark Jenkins

Jim (Robert Redford) must flee with his daughter, Isabel (Jackie Evancho), to the scene of a past crime in order to avoid a probing amateur reporter. Doane Gregory/Sony Pictures Classics hide caption

The Company You Keep

• Director: Robert Redford
• Genre: Drama
• Running Time: 125 minutes

Rated R for language

With: Robert Redford, Shia LaBeouf, Susan Sarandon, Brit Marling

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'Would You Do It Again?'

Credit: Sony Pictures Classics

'Clearly You Have Some Kind Of An Agenda'

'Who Do You Think You Are, The New York Times?'

Crisp in execution and classic in ambiance, The Company You Keep is star Robert Redford's most persuasive directorial work since 1994's Quiz Show . It's a pleasure to watch, even if the payoff is rather less substantial than the backstory.

The latter is established by an opening flurry of real and simulated TV news clips about the Weather Underground, the early-1970s leftist group. In this fictionalization, three former members are still wanted for a Michigan bank robbery. (The movie's reference to events of "30 years ago" suggests that this invented crime was inspired by a bloody 1981 armored-truck heist that's been called the Weather Underground's final act.)

One of the fugitives, now living quietly with her family in Vermont, is ready to turn herself in. After Sharon Solarz (Susan Sarandon) is booked by an FBI agent (Terrence Howard), upstate New York lawyer Jim Grant (Redford) is asked to represent her.

He says no, but a link has been implied. Unshaven and inexperienced Albany newspaper reporter Ben Shepard (Shia LaBeouf) begins to investigate Jim, and comes to believe he's actually Nick Sloan, who is also wanted in the robbery.

Jim, a recent widower, doesn't appreciate Ben's questions. He takes his 11-year-old daughter (Jacqueline Evancho) to New York City, where his brother (Chris Cooper) lives. Deftly eluding the FBI, Jim then heads to Michigan.

Belligerent Ben clashes with his editor (Stanley Tucci), as well as an ex-girlfriend (Anna Kendrick) who is now an FBI agent, and with Sharon herself, whose revolutionary instincts he mocks as "groovy." Yet the reporter comes to have grudging respect for Jim, and intuits that the runaway is seeking something other than sanctuary.

On his quest, Jim reconnects with onetime zealots who are wary but friendly, such as a maverick lumberyard owner (Nick Nolte), and others who are less welcoming, notably a paranoid college professor (Richard Jenkins). Eventually, word gets to the person Jim seeks to contact: his former lover (Julie Christie), now engaged in a different sort of underground operation with her current beau (Sam Elliott).

Rebecca (Brit Marling) is an unwilling and confused source for a brash young reporter (Shia LaBeouf) as he digs for the truth behind a violent unsolved 1970s bank heist in Michigan. Doane Gregory/Sony Pictures Classics hide caption

Rebecca (Brit Marling) is an unwilling and confused source for a brash young reporter (Shia LaBeouf) as he digs for the truth behind a violent unsolved 1970s bank heist in Michigan.

Ben also travels to Michigan, tracking the story from a different direction. He interviews a retired police officer (Brendan Gleeson) who worked on the bank-robbery case. Ben also pursues the ex-cop's daughter (Brit Marling), a law student who initially thinks the reporter has a romantic interest in her — perhaps because he sort of does.

A high-profile cast like this one can be a distraction, but Redford neatly uses the familiar faces to conjure the '70s. Old photos of some of them, including Redford with a mustache that can only be called groovy, instantly evoke the era. The technique recalls The Limey , a '90s film that used '60s footage of star Terence Stamp — and was scripted by Lem Dobbs, who also wrote this movie.

Films that take '70s revolutionaries seriously, common in Europe, are rare in the U.S. So it's no surprise when the personal ultimately trumps the political. The movie doesn't entirely dodge New Left views: Sarandon does a fine job with a speech in which Sharon expresses her willingness to do it all again , but "smarter."

But Sharon abandoned the clandestine life because of her kids, and Redford's '70s flashback ultimately becomes — like such predecessors as Running on Empty and German director Christian Petzold's The State I Am In — a parenting parable. There's even a hint of the stolen-kid thriller Gone Baby Gone in a fairly predictable plot twist.

Before settling into such comfortable territory, however, the movie is propulsive and involving. If The Company You Keep is far from radical, it's pretty audacious by the standards of counterrevolutionary Hollywood.

Film Review: ‘The Company You Keep’

Robert Redford's unabashedly heartfelt but competent tribute to 1960s idealism won't spark riots at the box office

By Leslie Felperin

Leslie Felperin

• Film Review: ‘Traitors’ 11 years ago
• Venice Film Review: ‘Little Brother’ 11 years ago
• Venice Film Review: ‘Ukraine Is Not a Brothel’ 11 years ago

“Old hippies never die, they just smell that way,” bumperstickers used to say, but the dropouts largely come up smelling like roses in “ The Company You Keep,” Robert Redford ‘s unabashedly heartfelt but competent tribute to 1960s idealism. Cannily casting eminent baby-boomer thesps — including Julie Christie , who was a poster kid for the counterculture — against young name actors like Shia LaBeouf, the pic attempts to bridge the generation gap with this story of a Weather Underground fugitive on the lam, played by Redford himself. Although more engaging than the helmer’s last few films, “Company” won’t spark riots at the box office.

A quick opening montage explains for the benefit of those under 40 what the Weather Underground was: a terrorist network committed to the violent overthrow of the U.S. government that broke away in the late 1960s from radical but pacifist org, Students for a Democratic Society. Skillfully faked fictional footage woven in with real archival material recounts how several Weathermen went into hiding after killing a security guard during a bank robbery in Michigan.

In contempo upstate New York, housewife Sharon Solarz ( Susan Sarandon ), one of those involved in the ill-fated Michigan robbery, turns herself in to the FBI after nearly 30 years of living under a false identity. Ambitious young reporter Ben Shepard (LaBeouf) starts digging around the story, and turns up evidence that local nice-guy lawyer and recently widowed single parent Jim Grant (Redford) was also part of Solarz’s cell back in the day. Old photos of Redford, sporting a Sundance Kid moustache, and Sarandon in her ingenue phase are cunningly photoshopped to make mugshots for Most Wanted posters, coyly evoking the thesps’ glory days as pin-ups.

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Deftly shaking off surveillance by FBI field officers ( Terrence Howard , Anna Kendrick), Grant deposits his young daughter Isabel (Jacqueline Evancho) with his brother Daniel ( Chris Cooper ) for safekeeping, and hits the road. His mission is to track down former g.f. Mimi (Christie), the cell’s most passionate firebrand, who unlike Jim and nearly all the others never settled down and went straight. On hearing via the underground network that Jim’s looking for her, she wistfully recalls to her current beau ( Sam Elliott ) that’s she’s walked away from six different lives over the years, an experience that’s seemingly left her hardened and unsentimental.

While nostalgia is otherwise generally the order of the day here, it’s not entirely filtered through rose-colored granny glasses, and the pic’s colorful, almost-wastefully impressive cast limns a sociologically convincing rogue’s gallery of reformed revolutionaries — some turned organic farmer, like the one played by Stephen Root (refreshingly cast against usual nerdy type); or university professor ( Richard Jenkins ), putting Franz Fanon on the reading list; or small businessman, like Nick Nolte’s cleaned-up acid casualty. The last, a brief but memorable turn, harks pleasingly back to Nolte’s blasted ‘Nam vet in “Who’ll Stop the Rain.”

Even screenwriter Lem Dobbs , adapting Neil Gordon’s novel here, has something of track record with this sort of material, having written Steven Soderbergh’s “The Limey” (1999), another tale about ’60s survivors haunted by its thesps’ own filmographies. Like that film, all plot roads lead to a young woman whose honor must be defended, in this case Brit Marling ‘s smart love-interest law student, who upstages LaBeouf.

“ The Company You Keep ” is nowhere near as formally audacious as Soderbergh’s film, but in its stolid, old-fashioned way, it satisfies an appetite, especially among mature auds, for dialogue- and character-driven drama that gets into issues without getting too bogged down in verbiage (unlike Redford’s recent “Lions for Lambs” or “ The Conspirator “).

There is something undeniably compelling, perhaps even romantic, about America’s ’60s radicals and the compromises they did or didn’t make, a subject underexplored in Hollywood cinema apart from honorable exceptions like Sidney Lumet’s “Running on Empty” (1988) and a few others. The French, meanwhile, have almost completely monopolized radical chic nostalgia, as seen in another Venice fest entry, Olivier Assayas’ “Something in the Air.”

Craft contributions are fine.

The Company You Keep

Reviewed at Venice Film Festival (noncompeting), Sept. 5, 2012. Running time: 121 MIN.

A Sony Pictures Classics release of a Voltage Pictures presentation of a Voltage Pictures/Wildwood Enterprises production, in association with Film Capital Europe Funds, Soundford Limited, Picture Perfect Corp. (International sales: Voltage Pictures, Los Angeles.) Produced by Nicolas Chartier, Robert Redford, Bill Holderman. Executive producers, Craig J. Flores, Shawn Williamson.

Directed by Robert Redford. Screenplay, Lem Dobbs, based on a novel by Neil Gordon. Camera (Technicolor, widescreen, HD), Adriano Goldman; editor, Mark Day; music, Cliff Martinez ; production designer, Laurence Bennett; art director, Jeremy Stanbridge; set decorator, Carol Lavallee; costume designer, Karen Matthews; sound (Dolby Digital/Datasat), Chris Duesterdiek; sound designer, Steve Boeddeker; supervising sound editors, Richard Hymns, Dan Laurie; re-recording mixers, Juan Peralta, Steve Boeddeker; visual effects supervisor, Adam Stern; visual effects, Artifex Studios, the VFX Cloud, Lola; stunt coordinator, Danny Virtue; associate producer, Jonathan Shore; assistant director, Richard Graves; casting, Avy Kaufman.

Cast: Robert Redford, Shia LaBeouf, Julie Christie, Susan Sarandon, Nick Nolte, Chris Cooper, Terrence Howard, Stanley Tucci, Richard Jenkins, Anna Kendrick, Brendan Gleeson, Brit Marling, Sam Elliott, Stephen Root, Jacqueline Evancho.

• Production: A Sony Pictures Classic release of a Voltage Pictures presentation of a Voltage Pictures/Wildwood Enterprises production, in association with Film Capital Europe Funds, Soundford Limited, Picture Perfect Corp. (International sales: Voltage Pictures, Los Angeles.) Produced by Nicolas Chartier, Robert Redford, Bill Holderman. Executive producers, Craig J. Flores, Shawn Williamson. Directed by Robert Redford. Screenplay, Lem Dobbs, based on a novel by Neil Gordon.
• Crew: Camera (Technicolor, widescreen, HD), Adriano Goldman; editor, Mark Day; music, Cliff Martinez; production designer, Laurence Bennett; art director, Jeremy Stanbridge; set decorator, Carol Lavallee; costume designer, Karen Matthews; sound (Dolby Digital/Datasat), Chris Duesterdiek; sound designer, Steve Boeddeker; supervising sound editors, Richard Hymns, Dan Laurie; re-recording mixers, Juan Peralta, Steve Boeddeker; visual effects supervisor, Adam Stern; visual effects, Artifex Studios, the VFX Cloud, Lola; stunt coordinator, Danny Virtue; associate producer, Jonathan Shore; assistant director, Richard Graves; casting, Avy Kaufman. Reviewed at Venice Film Festival (noncompeting), Sept. 5, 2012. Running time: 121 MIN.
• With: Jim Grant - Robert Redford Ben Shepard - Shia LaBeouf Mimi Lurie - Julie Christie Sharon Solarz - Susan Sarandon Donal Fitzgerald - Nick Nolte Daniel Sloan - Chris Cooper FBI Agent Cornelius - Terrence Howard Ray Fuller - Stanley Tucci Jed Lewis - Richard Jenkins Diana - Anna Kendrick Henry Osborne - Brendan Gleeson Rebecca Osborne - Brit Marling Mac Mcleod - Sam Elliott Billy Cusimano - Stephen Root Isabel Grant - Jacqueline Evancho

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The Company You Keep Movie Review

In The Company You Keep , Robert Redford plays a former member of the Weather Underground who was involved in a bank robbery that ended in tragic violence. For more than 30 years he’s been hiding out, living under an assumed identity as an activist lawyer in upstate New York. But when one of his former comrades (Susan Sarandon) turns herself in, his cover is blown, and he goes on the run looking up other hidden ex-members of the radical fringe. One (Richard Jenkins) is a professor; one (Julie Christie) is an unrepentant ideologue (she and Redford had a daughter, whom they abandoned); and one, played by — God bless him — a frizzy-white-haired, raspier-than-ever Nick Nolte, actually seems like a person who came out of the 1960s.

Aside from Nolte, just about everyone in The Company You Keep is earnestly high-minded and noble. The movie accepts that these people went to extremes to stop a war. It never considers that many members of the Weather Underground were driven by a nihilistic rage that became an end unto itself. Redford, who directed, has constructed the film as a meditation on one version of lost boomer dreams. Shia LaBeouf, who appears to be on hand to prove that a movie with a crusading newspaper reporter can still exist, perks up his scenes, and Redford acts with his usual hyperalert, placid control. (It’s hard to believe the man he’s playing ever wanted to bring down the system.) The Company You Keep chews on issues of violence in a muffled way, but restraint is not the quality this story was calling for. C+

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• Sony Pictures Classics

Summary A thriller centered on a former Weather Underground activist who goes on the run after a journalist exposes his identity.

Directed By : Robert Redford

Written By : Lem Dobbs, Neil Gordon

The Company You Keep

Where to watch.

Robert Redford

Jim grant, nick sloan.

Brit Marling

Rebecca osborne.

Stanley Tucci

Donal Fitzgerald

Shia LaBeouf

Ben shepard.

Julie Christie

Susan Sarandon

Sharon solarz.

Chris Cooper

Daniel sloan.

Terrence Howard

Fbi agent cornelius.

Richard Jenkins

Anna Kendrick

Brendan Gleeson

Henry osborne.

Sam Elliott

Stephen Root

Billy cusimano.

Jackie Evancho

Isabel grant, matthew kimbrough.

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The company you keep, common sense media reviewers.

Stellar cast is best thing about Redford's political drama.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

It's not always easy to make the moral choice,

Jim is wanted by the FBI for a decades-old crime;

A character is chased through the woods by federal

Characters flirt and sometimes discuss their past

Strong language includes multiple uses of both &qu

Labels/brands seen include GMC, Volvo, Twitter, Go

One character smuggles large bales of marijuana in

Parents need to know that The Company You Keep stars Robert Redford, who also directed, as a once-radical fugitive who's wanted for a 1960s bank robbery that left a guard dead -- but who long ago went underground, changed his name, and left everything behind. Once the long-cold case again becomes national…

Positive Messages

It's not always easy to make the moral choice, especially when it might have serious consequences. Jim, as a fugitive on the run for a crime that was committed decades ago, meets several of his old co-conspirators, and some are quite reluctant to help him if doing so threatens the comfortable lives they've created for themselves.

Positive Role Models

Jim is wanted by the FBI for a decades-old crime; he goes on the run to find some of the original participants, who are forced to make tough choices between what's right and what's easy. Some are more willing than others to do the right thing. And a young reporter who's digging into the story must make some equally tough choices when he unearths long-buried secrets.

Violence & Scariness

A character is chased through the woods by federal agents. Several scenes include old, grainy news footage of a bank robbery that left a security guard dead.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Characters flirt and sometimes discuss their past romantic entanglements.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Strong language includes multiple uses of both "f--k" and "s--t," plus "ass," "a--hole," "hell," "damn," "goddamn," and more.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Labels/brands seen include GMC, Volvo, Twitter, Google, and Toyota.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

One character smuggles large bales of marijuana in a sailboat. Other people drink beer at a bar.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Company You Keep stars Robert Redford , who also directed, as a once-radical fugitive who's wanted for a 1960s bank robbery that left a guard dead -- but who long ago went underground, changed his name, and left everything behind. Once the long-cold case again becomes national news, everything changes. Expect a fair bit of strong language (mostly "f--k" and "s--t"), plus plenty of fiery talk about revolutionary ideals, as well as a few scenes that feature people drinking beer. And one aging hippie now gets by smuggling large quantities of marijuana. The all-star supporting cast includes Shia LaBeouf , Susan Sarandon , and Julie Christie . To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

Jim Grant ( Robert Redford , who also directed) is a single dad and public interest lawyer in upstate New York. He's also wanted for a bank robbery decades earlier that left a guard dead, back when he was a 1960s radical and a member of the Weather Underground. After the heist, Jim (who wasn't Jim then) and the rest of the gang went underground, changed their identities, and stayed hidden for years. But when one of them ( Susan Sarandon ) is finally captured, Jim's cover is blown, and he must find his old friends before the FBI catches up with him. Shia LaBeouf co-stars as an aggressive reporter hot on Jim's heels, trying to figure out what really happened at the bank so many years ago. The film boasts an all-star cast of supporting characters as aging radicals, including Julie Christie , Nick Nolte , Richard Jenkins , and Sam Elliott .

Is It Any Good?

You won't be bored watching THE COMPANY YOU KEEP, which benefits from Redford's taut pacing and, well, his company. He may be one of the best understated actors in the business, and he has stuffed this drama with an ensemble of fine and finer thespians with a cupboard-full of award nominations and wins among them.

But by the time you reach the end of the film (which was based on Neil Gordon's novel), you may wonder why it bothered to entice you in the first place. The climax/ending is so unsatisfying, so thin, that it all seems like much ado over not very much at all. The movie's call for action -- for today's generation to examine its apathy or avarice -- is admirable, but if all our activism ends in a whimper, like this film does, what's the point? Watch it for the privilege of watching great actors do what they do best. That is all.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about why they think some of the fugitives in the film are willing to give up their comfortable lives and turn themselves in. Why did Jim choose to go underground?

How well does this film explain the radical politics of the 1960s and 1970s? How could you find out more if you wanted to?

Do you think you could ever leave your entire life, change your name, and stay hidden for decades?

Movie Details

• In theaters : April 5, 2013
• On DVD or streaming : August 13, 2013
• Cast : Brit Marling , Robert Redford , Shia LaBeouf , Susan Sarandon
• Director : Robert Redford
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Bisexual actors
• Studio : Sony Pictures Classics
• Genre : Drama
• Topics : History
• Run time : 121 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : language
• Last updated : July 20, 2023

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Movie Review: Redford’s The Company You Keep Is Almost Confrontational in Its Classicism

Rough but heartfelt, Robert Redford’s The Company You Keep is the kind of film you’re glad still exists, even though you wish it were better. Though billed as a fugitive thriller, it works much better as a reflective drama. Director Redford plays Jim Grant, a widowed father and successful Albany lawyer whose hidden radical past (and long-submerged identity) suddenly comes back to haunt him when a former Weather Underground colleague, played by Susan Sarandon, is taken into custody by the Feds for a deadly bank robbery decades ago. He goes on the run to try and find an old flame (Julie Christie) who might be able to clear his name. Pursuing him are a tenacious FBI agent (Terrence Howard) and a scheming reporter (Shia LaBeouf), who is determined to reveal our hero’s true identity.

As a piece of suspense, it ain’t exactly North by Northwest , or even Three Days of the Condor ; the awkward attempts at chase scenes make it clear that Redford the actor, who has always given off a slightly lugubrious air, has lost a step or two physically. But he was never much of an action hero, or action director, to begin with, and the good news is that he isn’t really trying to make an action film, whatever halfhearted genre flourishes he may toss in here and there.

As a director of actors, though, Redford still has a generosity and a focus that serves the story well. Besides Sarandon and Christie, Nick Nolte, Richard Jenkins, Stephen Root, Chris Cooper, and Sam Elliott all show up in supporting roles, and however small the parts, they’re given space to work. The camera at times seems content to just sit there and watch them — a good thing, because we are, too. There’s something behind these actors’ eyes that reaches beyond the screen; that kind of suggested inner life is crucial for a film like this, which is all about past deeds and forgotten ideals.

In a way, these characters are all ghosts, and the somber, measured style of the film helps enhance this haunted quality. Redford has always been a bit of a throwback directorially; back in 1992, A River Runs Through It felt like the best movie nobody made in 1952. But now his classicism feels almost confrontational — as if he’s trying to prove a point rather than just making movies the best way he knows how.

The younger actors don’t always fare as well as the older ones, however. LaBeouf is supposed to be ambitious and dogged — sort of like Kate Mara’s character on House of Cards , perhaps — but he comes across more as a snot. “Thirty years ago, a smart guy like you would have joined the cause,” Redford’s character tells him at one point, and all we can think is, No wonder they failed . Howard, meanwhile, is wasted yet again. Anna Kendrick and Brit Marling fare a bit better.

This isn’t the first time this sort of story has been tackled, and well: Sidney Lumet’s 1987 Running on Empty , featuring an Oscar-nominated River Phoenix, and the German director Christian Petzold’s The State I Am In , from 2000, are both about the desperate lives of former radicals on the run from the law, trying to break free of their dark legacies. The Company You Keep may suffer in comparison to those films, in part because it’s a hybrid, a touching drama with weak suspense elements. But this moody, somber work still feels at times like a welcome return to form for Redford the director, if not Redford the star.

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THE COMPANY YOU KEEP Review

Read Matt's The Company You Keep review of Robert Redford's new thriller starring Robert Redford, Shia LaBeouf, and Susan Sarandon.

[ This is a re-post of my review from the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.  The Company You Keep opens tomorrow in limited release. ]

Chase films probably shouldn't feature septuagenarians. Robert Redford 's The Company You Keep is two movies: one is a surprisingly entertaining investigative thriller, and the other is the most casual, least threatening chase flick I've ever seen. Redford has lined-up a tremendous cast, yet spreads them around in weak bit parts, leaving the majority of the picture to himself and Shia LaBeouf . Mixed between their characters' two stories are confused messages about the value of the truth and rallying for your beliefs (provided it's not too much of an inconvenience).

Former weather underground member Jim Grant (Redford) has been happily living under an assumed identity for the past thirty years. He practices law, raises his daughter*, and lives a good, clean life. When his old comrade Sharon Solarz ( Susan Sarandon ) is arrested for her participation in the murder of a bank guard thirty years ago, it leads hungry young reporter Ben Shepard (LaBeouf) to uncover who was also associated with the killing. Grant's name comes up, and he's forced to leave his daughter with his brother ( Chris Cooper ), and go on the "run" (figuratively, it's more of a light jog) from the FBI to find Mimi Lurie ( Julie Christie ), another former underground member who might be able to clear his name. Meanwhile, Shepard continues to dig deeper into what happened thirty years ago.

Shepard's story is better than anything Redford's done since Quiz Show . It's sharp, clever, well-paced, and draws us into a compelling mystery. There's not much danger in Shepard's investigation, but LaBeouf plays his cocky reporter with great charm and an easy demeanor. If the film entirely belonged to Shepard, it would have the room to be a thrilling and captivating journalism yarn that would provide a nice callback to the tenacity of Redford's Bob Woodward in All the President's Men .

But Redford's stunning vanity forces us to circle back to the dull movements of Jim Grant. The FBI wants to arrest Grant because it's embarrassing to the bureau to have a thirty-year-old open case. However, the amount of effort they put into their pursuit shows why they've failed for the past three decades. The investigation hinges on call tracking and letting Shepard do all of the legwork. Meanwhile, Grant's chase is simply a matter of tracking down an old associate, reminiscing, getting a lead on another old associate, driving on to the next reunion, and repeating this tiresome process unencumbered by any looming threat.

Grant's journey becomes even more annoying when Redford makes his inevitable preaching about these damn kids today. Speaking with another old friend ( Richard Jenkins ), the two proudly remember how they used to protest like true activists, and kids today just send out an angry tweet and move on. I don't necessarily disagree with the statement (although this movie seems to take place in a world where the Occupy movement never happened), but it's painfully hypocritical coming from two guys who have tried to bury their past. It's like the old saying: "If you're not a rebel in your twenties you're a coward. If you haven't sold out by the time you're thirty you're a fool." Grant and his pals show you can still be a coward and a fool well after you're thirty.

The movie also has a dubious message on the value of the truth. The entire conflict stems from Shepard's reporting causing trouble for Grant. While Shepard is definitely more concerned with his career than the value of the truth, he's still a professional. Rather than having Grant own up to his past, Shepard is made out to be some kind of huckster who hasn't done an honest day's work in his life. This is in contrast to the guy who's proud of his protesting days except when it might cause him to go to jail.

To Redford's credit, Company You Keep isn't the thinly veiled political preaching of his recent films Lions for Lambs and The Conspirator , and instead he puts the emphasis on creating a strong narrative when it comes to Shepard. Sadly, Redford wastes the majority of a stellar cast that also includes Brendan Gleeson, Nick Nolte, Anna Kendrick, Terrence Howard, Sam Elliott , and Brit Marling . The roles are thin for such great actors, and some parts are completely unnecessary. If Robert Redford could simply get over himself, he may have had a much stronger film, but yet again, he's the worst thing about his movies.

*Side note: Would it have killed Redford to make the kid his granddaughter instead of his daughter? Perhaps her parents had died, and now he was her guardian instead of a single, 76-year-old father. At best, Robert Redford can pass for 65, which is still grandpa age. The cat is out of the bag: Robert Redford is old.

clock This article was published more than  11 years ago

‘The Company You Keep’ movie review

At its core, " The Company You Keep " is a good, solid thriller about a fugitive trying to clear his name. But it's a much more interesting movie at the edges.

Based on Neil Gordon's 2003 novel about a former Weather Underground activist who has spent some 30 years in hiding after being implicated in a bank robbery that turned violent, the film follows a predictable path. Jim Grant (Robert Redford, who also directed) has been living under an assumed name and working as a respectable lawyer when a former colleague and fellow fugitive from his radical days (Susan Sarandon) is arrested by the FBI. Her apprehension, in which she looks like she wanted to get caught, piques the interest of a young newspaper reporter named Ben Shep­ard (Shia LaBeouf), whose dogged snooping also flushes out Jim.

Jim, a widower with a young daughter (Jackie Evancho), is soon on the lam again.

But his behavior — handing off his daughter to his brother (Chris Cooper) before making a beeline for his old radical pals (Nick Nolte, Richard Jenkins) — suggests to Ben that Jim thinks he’s innocent and is trying to find someone to exonerate him. That sounds like a story to Ben, but it also puts the journalist at odds with an FBI officer (Terrence Howard), who’s tired of his agency being made to look like chumps by a bunch of old hippies.

The chase — part police manhunt, part shoe-leather reporting — forms the spine of the story. It’s a pretty gripping one, with secrets, a twist and an only slightly silly ending. The performances are uniformly fine, and Redford’s direction keeps things taut and moving.

But there’s a far more intriguing film in the shadows of the story.

Screenwriter Lem Dobbs, who worked with Steven Soderbergh on " Haywire ," " The Limey " and "Kafka," has fashioned a script that's propulsive, while allowing for plenty of breathing room. The themes of aging, atonement and the death of idealism alone add layers of complexity and richness to the tale. But on top of that, Dobbs digs deeply into the question of terrorism and its definition. What's the difference between the Weather Underground and al-Qaeda? The film asks this through Ben, a character who wasn't even born by the end of the Vietnam War — a war that some of Jim's colleagues considered itself a form of terrorism.

“The Company You Keep” looks at the notion of morality — both the shifting, relativistic kind and the more inflexible variety — from more than one angle, and without obvious judgment. It has a story to tell, not an ax to grind.

It also features a splendid depiction of real, 21st-century journalism as practiced on the ground: crippled, idealistic and more than slightly desperate. Stanley Tucci is great as Ben’s beleaguered editor.

In the end, there’s a love story at the heart of “Company.” In fact, there’s more than one. It offers no apologies for the old act of violence that precipitates its action, but it holds a deep affection for the gray areas of dissension, debate and disillusionment that sometimes leave blood on the floor.

R. At area theaters. Contains obscenity, drug references and brief violence. 125 minutes.

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‘the company you keep’ review: milo ventimiglia and catherine haena kim in a frothy abc drama with a hint of potential.

A con artist links up with a CIA agent in this romantic/odd-couple series, based on a South Korean show.

By Daniel Fienberg

Daniel Fienberg

Chief Television Critic

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It may not be the second coming of Friday Night Lights or The Good Wife , but ABC ‘s Will Trent is probably my favorite broadcast network TV drama of the year. What I appreciate most about the Karin Slaughter adaptation is how quickly it established its characters, its location and the elements of its premise that are relatively distinctive. The show became what it aspired to be in a hurry.

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The kind of show it wants to be, basically, is The Catch , a Shonda Rhimes-produced comedic heist romance that ABC developed, redeveloped and redeveloped again over a truncated two-season run back in 2016-17. But if nobody at ABC is going to have the institutional memory to remember that they already made this show, who am I to bring it up?

This version is ostensibly adapted by Julia Cohen and Phil Klemmer from the South Korean series My Fellow Citizens! 

Our heroes: Charlie Nicoletti ( Milo Ventimiglia ) is an extraordinarily gifted con man in a family of cons. He works with his ultra-cautious sister ( Sarah Wayne Callies ‘ Birdie) and parents ( William Fichtner ‘s Leo and Polly Draper’s Fran) to orchestrate big scores, but only big scores against people who really deserve it, because that’s how con artists work in movies and TV shows. They’re also eying that “one last con” that’ll allow them all to go straight, but a lucrative play on an Irish mobster goes pear-shaped.

Emma Hill ( Catherine Haena Kim ) is part of a family that aspires to be the Asian American Kennedys. I know this, because in the second episode, a character says that Emma’s mother (Freda Foh Shen)  wants them to be the Asian American Kennedys. Her father (James Saito) is a former governor and her brother (Tim Chiou) is a senator. I know this because in the pilot, somebody addresses Emma at a party and declares, “Your father’s a former governor, your brother’s a senator, what does that make you?”

Emma’s got problems in her personal life that lead to her sitting lonely at a hotel bar, where she meets Charlie in the aftermath of his job-gone-wrong. They flirt (joking about how they’re lying about their respective identities). They spend 36 hours together. There are feelings. 

But Charlie is a con artist! And Emma is a CIA agent! How ever will they find a way to flirt attractively, while keeping their respective professional covers?  

The Company You Keep is very, very clumsy at introducing a conceit that is unquestionably busy, but definitely not complicated. 

My earlier suggestion was that it takes too long for The Company You Keep to settle into what its actual structure and rhythms will be, but it could just as easily be that it doesn’t take enough time. One character after another refers to Charlie’s brilliance, but I’ve seen two episodes and nothing he does is even vaguely clever, much less brilliant. Emma’s own brilliance is established by her doing one of those Sherlock Holmes quick-reads on a stranger, but the show doesn’t bother to establish the elements of her personal life that lead to her meeting with Charlie at the hotel bar, nor does it ask you to believe the psychology of that meeting.

Maybe halfway through the second episode, The Company You Keep gets all of that stuff out of the way. Well, not all of it. There’s a lot of exposition that still has to be presented.  But the show that this settles into being is decent or, as I keep saying, has the potential to be decent, since I’ve only seen 20 minutes of it.

The paralleling of the two families, and therefore the paralleling of legitimate and illegitimate con artistry, is interesting. There will need to be more specifics, obviously. I already mentioned how bad the Nicoletti’s first con is and the con in the second episode, while vastly better, is more an opportunity for Fichtner to play funny dress-up than anything else, while the Hills are politicians in that nebulous television way that’s completely non-ideological and therefore bordering on meaningless.

But I like the care that has been taken to give the families and their interactions a similar shape. And I like the seeds of performances and characterizations, especially the warmth from the older generation of actors, all gifted enough to contribute nuance well beyond what was on the page. In the case of both families, the non-featured sibling has the least developed role, though at least Callies’ Birdie has hints of a meaningful relationship with a deaf daughter (Shaylee Mansfield), which I’m curious to see unfold. 

It remains to be seen if the show The Company You Keep eases into by its second episode is sustainable. You can only have a con-of-the-week structure as a longterm device if the cons are better than they’ve been so far. You can only expect viewers to care about an inconsequential political race — Emma’s senator brother is up for reelection — if there’s some substance to the politics. And, more than anything, a relationship built on a key secret can play in suspense and obfuscation for a while, but not infinitely. There’s enough here that I’ll give it a little more time.

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THE COMPANY YOU KEEP

"pacifist view of liberal civil disobedience".

What You Need To Know:

(HH, PC, B, C, RHRH, APAP, LLL, V, N, A, DD, M) Strong but mitigated humanist worldview with light politically correct, leftist view validating antiwar, counter-culture movement of the 1960s and 70s, with some moral elements of doing the right thing to protect the innocent and favoring peaceful protest over violent protest, plus a Christian, redemptive nod toward sacrifice, with strong revisionist history, Anti-American dialogue in one scene accusing the U.S. of genocide and murdering millions, a wild, false accusation that goes unanswered; 45 obscenities (including 20 or more “f” words) and 11 strong profanities; some very light violence includes FBI arrests and chases wanted people and a punch, plus bank video shows robbery and one person killing a security guard but nothing graphic; no sex scenes but there are references to an unmarried birth and couple spends night in a cabin but movie leaves it completely up in the air whether couple actually slept together; brief upper male nudity; brief alcohol references; no smoking but leftist woman is unapologetic about smuggling marijuana; and, leftist radicals evade the law and hero has to let a criminal go free and mislead the FBI in order to convince her to turn herself in on her own and help clear his name.

More Detail:

THE COMPANY YOU KEEP is a terrible title for a drama about a 1960s antiwar activist who, years later, tries to clear his name for a politically-inspired murder he did not do. Though the movie favors peaceful civil disobedience over political violence, it never really questions the antiwar movement of the Sixties, which turned out to be morally and historically wrong.

The movie opens with the FBI capturing a woman who, 35 years ago, was involved in a bank robbery and murder committed by violent antiwar activists of the 1960s Weather Underground Organization. The Weathermen, as they were called, were a militant, openly communist wing of the antiwar movement. Their states goal was to overthrow the U.S. government and establish a communist tyranny. Formed in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan, they were guilty of many bombings around the country, including one at the Pentagon and one at the State Department.

A young reporter, Ben, finds out that a friend of the woman had asked a local lawyer, Jim Grant, to represent the woman, but Grant had declined. Ben discovers that Jim, a widower with a young daughter, is actually a former member of the Weathermen. Jim was accused of being involved in the bank robbery too, but he actually wasn’t involved with the robbery and had broken ties with the group when he disagreed with its violent tactics.

With the FBI and Ben hot on his trail, Jim goes on a cross-country journey to track down the one person who can clear his name. As he does, other secrets are revealed ad other lives are turned upside down.

THE COMPANY YOU KEEP is an awful title. However, the movie is an effective, suspenseful drama with good performances. Leading the talented cast are Robert Redford as Jim Grant, Julie Christie (DOCTOR ZHIVAGO) as the one person who can clear Jim’s name, and Shia LaBeouf as the young reporter trying to make a name for himself. Redford also directs the movie, and it’s one of his better directing efforts.

Regarding the movie’s political and philosophical content, Redford uses his movie to promote a political viewpoint favoring nonviolent, peaceful protests and civil disobedience. A conversation between his character and that of Julie Christie’s set the stage for this. Her character still believes in violent, criminal civil disobedience to injustice, but Redford’s character has rejected it. Also, his character pleads with her to surrender and help him clear his name. In another scene, between Redford’s character and the reporter, Redford’s character urges the reporter to hide certain facts about some innocent people so that the media won’t expose their relationship to him and potentially destroy their lives.

Thus, in addition to the movie’s theme that peaceful political protests are better than violent ones, the movie also promotes the idea of protecting the innocent, at the risk of hurting oneself. Consequently, Julie Christie’s character must decide whether to surrender and go to jail to help clear Jim Grant’s name. The reporter must decide whether to hide some details about Jim’s life to protect his innocent friends, at the risk of hurting the reporter’s own career. These subplots imply that self-sacrifice is one of the virtues that Redford honors. That said, there’s nothing else particularly redemptive, much less Christian, about THE COMPANY YOU KEEP, which seems to have a humanist, secular worldview otherwise.

Despite its positive qualities, THE COMPANY YOU KEEP has a couple major moral and political defects. First, the movie contains 20 or more “f” words and more than 10 strong profanities, plus other foul language. Second, though the movie does favor peaceful political protest, it never questions the basic ideology of the antiwar, counter-culture movement of the 1960s and 70s. The movie seems to accept the politically correct, leftist view that American society is still unjust and corrupt. In fact, in one scene, one of the former radicals says the modern United States government murdered “millions” of people and waged “genocide” against Asians or Vietnamese during the 1960s. Her revisionist history goes completely unanswered in the movie.

In reality, of course, it was the communists in Vietnam and Cambodia who engaged in brutal mass murder and oppression of other people. Similar things happened in the Soviet Union and China under the communist rulers in those countries. Furthermore, as documents released from the Soviet Union after the fall of the Berlin Wall show, the antiwar, counterculture movement in the 1960s and 70s was propped up by millions of dollars from Soviet Union spies, front groups, and provocateurs.

It’s irresponsible for any movie to let such radical revisionist history go unanswered, even if it is just one line of dialogue in one scene. Be that as it may, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution overall for THE COMPANY YOU KEEP.

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A producer does very little to actually make the movie. In fact one of his biggest responsibilities is to hire the right people to make movie magic. But what should you know about the hiring... Read all A producer does very little to actually make the movie. In fact one of his biggest responsibilities is to hire the right people to make movie magic. But what should you know about the hiring process? And how do you find those people you want to keep hiring time and time again? We... Read all A producer does very little to actually make the movie. In fact one of his biggest responsibilities is to hire the right people to make movie magic. But what should you know about the hiring process? And how do you find those people you want to keep hiring time and time again? We'll answer those questions and much more as David Cook returns to The Producer Podcast.

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