User reviews

Although not one of Redford's best, "The Company You Keep" is still way better than the majority of so called thriller/dramas produced these days in my humble opinion...excellent acting all round, Redford is good as usual (if looking a little too old maybe for this role) and the supporting cast (Cooper, Tucci, Christie and Gleeson in particular) are a credit as well. Whilst there are not a lot of twists and surprises that you can't see coming, it's the way the story is told and unfolds, and it makes you think about your ideals and sacrifices and plotted that really counts. Although I'm a Brit in my 40's and the material is not familiar to myself at all I really enjoyed the ride. Solid, if not spectacular, but definitely worth the time to view.

Robert Redford stars with a wonderful cast of golden oldies in "The Company You Keep," a 2012 film.

Redford plays Jim Grant, an attorney and widower, who is contacted by a friend to help a former activist (Susan Sarandon). Now a housewife, she has just been arrested for the murder of a bank guard during a robbery many years earlier. At that time, she was a member of the notorious underground Weathermen group, which protested the Vietnam war, the killings at Kent State, and were part of the violence and chaos of the time. She was intending to turn herself in, but the FBI got to her first.

Grant says he can't help, but that puts an ambitious reporter, Ben Shepard (Shia LeBoeuf) onto him. It doesn't take long for Shepard to find out that Jim Grant is in reality Nick Sloan, part of the Weathermen, who has changed his identity. Grant/Sloan goes on the run, leaving his 11-year-old daughter with his brother (Chris Cooper). This tells the reporter that Sloan is not intending to go underground and take on a new identity, or he would have taken his daughter. Shepard thinks that Sloan is thing to clear his name once and for all, and is trying to locate other Weathermen in order to help him.

The cast includes, besides those listed above, Julie Christie, Stanley Tucci, Sam Elliot, Nick Nolte, and Brit Marling.

I had two major problems with this film, which was actually good if not terribly suspenseful. The first is, I was around during the era talked about in the film; and the second thing is, I remember what Robert Redford used to look like.

This film I believe is supposed to take place in the present day, yet everyone talks about these events that occurred "thirty years ago." Well, not to be picky, but "thirty years ago" is what, 1981, since the film was made in 2011. Youthful uprisings, protests against Vietnam, the Kent State killings -- I'm sorry, those happened 40-45 years ago. What happened thirty years ago? Dynasty. Ebony and Ivory. Diana and Charles got engaged. Reagan.

The second issue I had is this: Susan Sarandon, Richard Jenkins, and Stephen Root were the right age to play aging hippies (so is Chris Cooper but he didn't play one); Christie I could buy - first of all, she's fabulously beautiful and doesn't look her age - and secondly, her character was a Jane Fonda type, so she would have been active in her early thirties, as the character still was an activist. Nick Nolte - I'm not totally convinced that his character was an activist in his late twenties and thirties.

But Robert Redford is 76. Now, I've read where people think he looks good. I think he looks every millisecond of 76. He's obviously supposed to be playing someone 10 years younger, and to me, he doesn't pull it off. And the 11-year-old daughter - I find that interesting. They cast women as mothers who in real life are one year older than the person playing their sons, but no one blinks when Redford or Eastwood have children under ten.

Unfortunately, those distractions took away from this film for me. If I hadn't lived through that time, I could have gotten into it more. I admire Robert Redford, I like that he does this type of film, but he needs a small reality check. He wasn't a hippie then, and he's not an aging hippie now.

There's a lot to think about after watching Robert Redford's movie, 'The Company You Keep', although sadly, some of the ideas are provoked by their absence in the film, rather than their presence. The story is based on the real life activities of the Weather Underground, a radical left- wing organisation of then1970s; in this story, the police are finally closing in on the remnants of the gang (who are still wanted, among other things, for murder) after over 30 years. It's a good premise, and the movie is unfashionably sympathetic to its protagonists, respecting their idealism whatever wrong they did. Yet in some way it's the wrong kind of sympathy: the individuals are shown as parents, grandparents, living conventional lives, not completely rejected their own past but nonetheless no longer people one could imagine committing such acts. I think there's an interesting subject: what conventionally speaking might be considered defects would drive someone to ignore their own immediate interests for the sake of a cause (and ultimately drive them beyond mere idealism to take a Raskolnikovian view that their cause gives them the right to decide who lives and who dies). The idea of idealism as a social disease (because society depends on its members not asking too many questions) is an obvious and interesting question to raise in this film; but instead we see a group so well-socially adjusted that it's hard to believe in any of them as trigger-pullers, even in a former life.

There's a second strand to the film about a journalistic investigation of one of the suspects. Redford, of course, acted in one the great journalistic movies ('All the President's Men') and this one can't hold a candle to that; the story is obvious and feels basically unnecessary (except, presumably, that you can't get a film made these days unless you have some actors in it under the age of 30). I still quite liked the movie, but overall, it's a little too kind on the nature of journalists, terrorists and society alike; and fundamentally cuddly where it should be disconcerting.

"When we revolt it's not for a particular culture. We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe." Frantz Fanon

In Robert Redford's The Company You keep, Jim Grant (Redford) is an attorney on the lam for participating in Weather Underground anti-Vietnam activities over 40 years ago. That a bank robbery resulted in the death of a guard has made the revolutionaries fugitives from murder charges.

This political thriller, in which the FBI has finally zeroed in on the robbers because Sharon Solarz (Susan Sarandon) has decided to turn herself in, devolves into a formulaic chase with helicopters and frantic cell calls, but along the way has some engaging dialogue ("Yeah we all died. Some of us just came back." Donal Fitzgerald, played by Nick Nolte) often given in the repartee style of screwball comedy without the comedy.

I am most surprised at director Redford's political restraint, given his inclination to preach baldly in previous films and in his personal life. The Company You Keep smoothly combines the pacing of a race for survival with the consciousness of a moderate liberal trying to show the unglamorous effects of sins, like excessive ambition and murder, over a lifetime. In its favor the film does not overdo its sympathy for the kids of these radicals, although Brit Marling as Rebecca Osborne would make anyone cry over her, so innocent-looking she is.

While the film tends to emphasize the personal effects on lovers and families to the exclusion of the Weatherman history, it still is instructive about the radical movements decades ago. Although the theme of the ramifications of keeping a secret are parsed by Grant in a too-contrived monologue, the point is well taken, for each secret revealed adds another layer of punishment for all, even children.

If Redford weren't so wrapped up in nostalgia and stuck to the hard-core reasons for some very bright people's stupidity, this could have been a soaring achievement of documenting history in dramatic form. As it is, it's a smart thriller that has some lessons, both political and personal, for all the audience.

Forty years ago, members of the Weathermen robbed a bank in Michigan, killing a woman in the event. The people involved scattered into the wind. Now Susan Sarandon, has been arrested by the FBI for her part in the murder, and the police are looking for her accomplice, Robert Redford. For the past quarter of a century he has been keeping his head down as a lawyer in Albany, New York, raising his daughter, mourning the death of his wife. Plus he wasn't at the robbery, but the only person who can prove that is Julie Christie, and he has no idea where she is.

As the movie progresses we see former campus radicals, and the staid individuals they have become. Judging by the quality of the actors, they are a minorly distinguished bunch: Nick Nolte, Chris Cooper, Stanley Tucci, Richard Jenkins, Sam Elliott.... it's the sort of cast that Sundance founder, director/producer Robert Redford could assemble for a meditation on right and wrong and issues about whether the ends justify the means, and what punishment can be added to four decades in hiding, terrified that you'll be sent to jail.... and wriggles out of the dilemma by making Redford innocent. Of course we're on his side! He's Robert Redford! He's a good dad! He didn't do anything!

Still, it's good to watch these expert thespians at work.

The first thing I would like to say about this film is that it kept me entertained for two hours without once glancing at the clock.This in itself is no mean achievement in an age where many movies are unnecessary long. Hollywood obviously believes length is important if you want to be successful. Entertaining as it was I'm not so sure it was plot that kept me watching as much as the parade of veteran actors on display. A rather disparaging comment and maybe one that should have been reserved for the confusing historical context of the storyline itself. Being of an age that remembers the activities of the Weather Underground I was under the impression that their acts of terrorism had ceased by the time the Vietnam peace agreement was signed in 1973 since the Vietnam War had been the organisation's raison d'etre but in this film the Weather Men are still on a mission as we approach 1980. The film also has amusing parallels with another piece of Redford left-wing theatre, 'The Way we were'. In this 1973 film the Redford character, a talented screen writer, backs away from confrontation with the Communist witch-hunt in Hollywood and seeks respectability by compromising his ability and forsaking the woman he loves in the process. His 2012 alta ego also loses his passion for the cause and sacrifices love and a daughter by walking away, 'I grew up'. In both films Redford played people much younger than himself. I'm not sure what this says about Robert Redford but I think my wife summed it up when she remarked after watching an early scene in 'Company, 'He's not the father of that young girl, is he?' Exactly, a 75 year old unconvincingly playing somebody twenty years younger while in 1973 film he was a 36 year college student! Anyway,enough of Redford who otherwise gives a competent performance. It was good to see Julie Christie again and who along with Nick Nolte, Susan Sarandon and Chris Cooper and still capable of teaching the young pretenders a thing or two. All in all and enjoyable and nostalgic evening's viewing.

The acting by a stream of well known faces who were young I when I was also young are very good, and being a similar age as them I could relate to some of what they were experiencing in the story. I listened to a review on the radio criticising the movie because of the difficulty of enjoying watching people past their prime in a suspense movie. Maybe the reviewer should have stuck to the Bourne movies to get their kicks.

Well age has nothing to do with it but maturity certainly does. The appealing theme here is that we don't leave our past so far behind us that it doesn't exert any major influence on us years later. In fact the more years that pass the more significant the past can become. I suggest you don't be put off by the negativity of what some others say and see the movie.

First off, THE COMPANY YOU KEEP is by no means a "thriller." There is nothing in the way of fast action, not a shred of violence, no harrowing chase scenes, etc. The pacing throughout is slow yet steady. The first three-quarters of the film are simultaneously engagingly and ho-hum. I kept hoping that it would somehow pay off, and it does: The subtle threads come together, and there are some true surprises. By "true," I do not mean anything earth-shattering, just, well, truly surprising. THE COMPANY YOU KEEP quietly touches on a lot of themes, but in the end it's more about the camaraderie (as well as suspicion) that endures between old friends/conspirators than it is about what's happening with all of them in the here and now.

Redford gives a nice performance as Jim Grant/Nick Sloan, but Shia LaBeouf steals the show as idiosyncratic reporter Ben Shepard. Julie Christie, Susan Sarandon, Brendan Gleeson,and most of the rest of the cast under-act; still, the under-acting is oddly effective and in keeping with the other minimalistic elements of this film.

Several plot holes and too-easies that will hopefully not be too ruinous if you are willing and able to suspend disbelief. THE COMPANY YOU KEEP might also have been enhanced by more in the way of flashback(s)to the big event back in the '70s that brought about everything that's happening in the present.

THE COMPANY YOU KEEP may leave you wondering who the real criminals, both within the film and elsewhere, are. I've never seen anything quite like this, and I'm not sure why I like it as much as I do (but I do).

TIP: Younger audiences--or anyone without an interest in the Vietnam years--are likely to be bored by this film.

I AM CONVINCED THE CONSERVATIVE PRESS MISSED THE ENTIRE POINT OF THE MOVIE.

While I'm totally conservative, the talking heads that trashed this film blew it completely.

This film does not glorify terrorism. Quite the opposite. It shows how a person can cross the line from being an "activist" to being a felon/terrorist. It is sort of a retrospective of an activist's two lives - one he abandoned once he crossed the line, the other, the stolen life he built afterward.

There is a price one pays to the public through the court system. There is also a private price, or a personal price one also pays. In both cases,the focus is more on the private price he foisted off on loved ones to avoid paying his public price for his acts.

(The reader must understand that Sloan was guilty of some felony activities, but NOT the murder of the bank guard. His crimes, if caught, were worth some jail time, but not a life sentence for murder.)

People should watch this just so they could consider the idea that actions they might start can easily spin out of control, leaving them with consequences they might be forced to live with for the rest of their life, and MORE IMPORTANTLY, exact an even worse price upon all their loved ones.

This is a VERY tightly packed movie, hardly a word that isn't important to the development of the plot. Watch it closely.

This movie does need a bit more tension and rage at one particular point, but that's about the biggest flaw I saw.

Just so you know, Redford, 76, is playing the role of a late 60 year-old, and there are very important reasons why he has a young daughter. Now, it is up to you to see this film and figure out why.

By the way, this movie has a lot of great talent in it, and they each do very well for themselves and the presentation of the movie's theme. There are 14 class act performers, plus one. This would be a hard cast to play against, but "plus one" did a super job in her first movie role.

This film is about a journalist who uncovers the hidden truth of the events of a failed bank robbery by a radical anti-war group thirty years ago.

"The Company You Keep" looks amazing on paper, with an impressively stellar cast. The plot involves both a journalist and the FBI chasing after Robert Redford, which appears to have much tension but there really isn't. The journalist has the upper hand in unravelling the stories, making the FBI rather displeased. This supposed rivalry between the two parties is not portrayed deep enough, for example, the search warrant subplot was not followed through. How the journalist uncovers all that information was not presented, and hence I was confused about a few things, such as how he knew about the former policeman's daughter's true identity, and how he knew the true intention of Robert Redford's cross-state travels. There are too many loose ends and unexplained subplots, and too little tension. "The Company You Keep" could have been better, but is still worth watching for the stellar cast.

The Company You Keep wants to tackle a number of issues like journalistic integrity, the powers that be, the radical movements, but ends up messing it up.

The good. What keeps this movie up and alive is Shia LaBeouf's performance. It's energetic and well done. Overall, interesting subject. Good pace.

The actors. Beside LaBeouf, Robert Redford's character is a bit bland, as are most of the others when they're not just overly simplistic.

The bad. The scenario gives us one of the master key too easily. And the movie should have stopped at the boat sailing off. Let the viewer imagine the rest, no need to pre-chew everything.

The ugly. What kind of FBI task force is that? They look like amateurs. I'm not talking about their effectiveness, I'm talking about how they're represented on screen. They feel weightless.

The result. It could have been more. If you're interested in that kind of thing, go ahead, but don't expect too much.

After a local woman (sarandon) is arrested for a crime from years ago, it opens up a can of worms for the others who were also involved. She was part of the weather underground, a group of war protesters who resorted to bombings and violence to get attention. When a determined reporter (shia) tracks down one of the other original activists (redford), grant makes a run for it, leaving his daughter with his own brother. Now the chase is on, with the fuzz after him, as well as the reporter. Co-stars stanley tucci, julie christie, nick nolte. A really good story, that slowly unfolds. And like grant tells the reporter, you'd better be ready to deal with the secrets that you uncover. Loosely based on the real activities of the weather underground. Directed by redford. Good mix of action and talking. And ten years after this film, redford is still working!

It's a drama about the Weather Underground set in 2011 in Albany and New York City, New York, as well as Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Detroit, Ann Arbor and Upper Peninsula, Michigan. Three members of the Weather Underground robbed a bank in Michigan in 1980, in which a bank guard died. Three political radicals involved with the robbery have been underground since and are charged with murder. One of them, Sharon Solarz (Susan Sarandon), decides to surrender after 30 years and is taken down in a high-profile arrest near Albany, New York. Ben Shepard (Shia LaBeouf), a young reporter for the local paper, gets obsessed with the case. He determines that a local lawyer, Jim Grant (Robert Redford), is really Nick Sloan, one of the wanted men. Sloan is now widowed with an 11-year-daughter, Isabel (Jackie Evancho). The FBI is soon in hot pursuit, led by Agent Cornelius (Terrence Howard).

The film follows Shepard's efforts to find Sloan and Sloan's efforts to find Mimi Lurie (Julie Christie), a former lover and partner in the robbery, to clear himself since he didn't actually participate in the robbery. Shepard's and Sloan's travels put them in contact with Sloan's brother Daniel (Chris Cooper) and former Sloan associates played by Nick Nolte, Richard Jenkins, and Sam Elliott. We also meet the Michigan cop who led the initial bank investigation, Henry Osborne (Brendan Gleeson), and Osborne's daughter, Rebecca (Brit Marling), who has a complicated history.

"The Company You Keep" is an engaging, if somewhat over-complicated, plot inspired by stories of people who went underground for many years. Unfortunately, Redford should have made the film ten years earlier with some younger actors. Redford was way too old for the role (he was 75 when he made the movie, making him too old for someone once in the Weather Underground). Even Julie Christie seemed a little old. There was some decent political dialogue in the script. Susan Sarandon's one monologue near the film's beginning was its most convincing part.

The Weather Underground no longer existed in 1980, so the plot stretched reality in 2011 a little too far. It's too bad. I wanted the film to work since I was a member of the pre-Weather Underground SDS in the 1960s.

The Company You Keep has a startlingly star-studded cast and I was surprised to see that most of them were in small, thankless roles. People like Sam Elliott, Nick Nolte, Chris Cooper and Stanley Tucci have a couple, three scenes at most and aren't given much of anything to sink their teeth into. What I think this suggests is an immense respect for Robert Redford - there are very few directors who could assemble actors of that caliber for roles that probably anyone could play. And that respect is merited - with Company, Redford proves once again that he is an exceptionally talented director who deserves to be taken more seriously than he is.

It begins with the abrupt arrest of Sharon Solarz (Susan Sarandon), an American terrorist who had been living in hiding for decades since she was connected to a robbery that resulted in the murder of a security guard. Her arrest sparks renewed interest in the case and as a reporter (Shia LaBeouf) starts to dig deeper, a lawyer and newly single father (Robert Redford) realizes he is about to be uncovered and flees, leaving his daughter to stay with his younger brother (Chris Cooper) while he searches for an unknown something.

The foundation of Company is a clever, taut screenplay reminiscent of classic 70's American thrillers. It shocks the audience with reveal after reveal, always bringing up more questions and arousing more suspicions, but does so without a hint of self-importance and gracefully avoids inflated tension. Redford's graceful direction brings the electric writing to life and creates a suitably foreboding atmosphere - it's gritty, but not too dark; fast-paced, but not so much that it sacrifices plot or character; emotional, but not saccharine. For such an outlandish plot, Redford makes it feel as real as it possibly could. Too many modern thrillers like this try to make every beat into a high emotion scene, or build around the twist so it's as dramatic as possibly. Company avoids that - there is a refreshing lack of forced grandeur, and in its wake we get a surprisingly intimate film filled with truly fascinating characters and provocative moral questions that the screenplay doesn't answer for us.

The cast, as expected, are uniformly excellent. If there is a weak link it's Shia LeBeouf, whose real-life smug vanity suits the character but can only carry him so far when he's up against acting titans. He seems amateurish in his one-on-one scenes with Redford and Sarandon even though neither of them give especially domineering performances. Redford is an appropriately sympathetic lead but the supporting actors steal the movie - Susan Sarandon sets the bar very high right from the off. In her two or three short scenes, she reveals everything about her secretive, stony character; her microexpressions tell all. Cooper, Nick Nolte, Sam Elliott and Richard Jenkins light up their segments with their presences alone, while Brendan Gleeson delivers a hauntingly conflicted portrayal.

Julie Christie, though, is the standout. If this has to be her last screen appearance, it's comforting to know that she went out with a loud bang, playing a character so unlike anything she's ever done before. Her Mimi is ferocious and spirited, but her steely conviction can't quite mask the naive little girl who never really grew up hiding underneath. She communicates a world of internal conflict with a simple raise of her eyebrows, a pang of regret merely by letting her mouth fall open; she's a master of her craft, fully realizing her character in maybe 15 minutes of screen time where most of her lines hit the same note.

If there's one problem with the movie, it's that it's too short. A significant plot point towards the end isn't given the time and attention it deserves, considering its weight and implications. It felt like a wasted opportunity for an amazing, thematically fathoms-deep ending. However, the ending as it is is satisfying and well-done nonetheless, and cleanly wraps up an expertly crafted breath of fresh air for the genre. If only it had come out 35 years ago where it would have been right at home and probably would have garnered a better reception.

A film about radicalism, regret and redemption. Robert Redford has managed to attract an all star cast ranging from the up and coming, stars of yesteryear and some solid character actors.

It's not a high octane thriller but it moves at a good space and there are some smart moves.

As a director, Redford is solid, getting good performances from his actors and getting the younger ones to raise their game and they have to as there are several Oscar winners and nominees in the cast.

Visually Redford has never been the one to try new tricks although his past films have had great cinematography such as 'A River Runs Through It.'

What we have here is Redford on the run, trying to clear his name and meet up with old radicals who might aid him in his endeavour. Some have regrets, others do not.

This film was never likely to be a blockbuster but is a good, well made film. If you like the stars here, you will like this.

With a stellar cast and Robert Redford directing, the expectations are high, which is why the final result was so disappointing. Billed as a Thriller, this storyline had all the hallmarks of a great, edge-of-your-seat, surprise-around-the-corner true thriller but it just didn't cut it.

The cast was outstanding but all wrong! Sorry, but Mr. Redford you're 77 years old, hardly an impressionable college kid in the 70's when The Weather Underground was active. Likewise Julie Christie at 71 (both of these people look fantastic for their age but...) was too old for her role. Oh yeah, and Brendan Gleeson (who I adore) would have been no more than 15 when he was the officer investigating the crime that ties this all together. For some viewers these details may not have mattered (clearly they didn't based on reviews) but it was a big deal to me.

I may have been able to get past what I thought were serious casting mistakes if the story had lived up to what it could have been, suspenseful, exciting, intelligent drama. Instead it was weak and boring.

The Company You Keep certainly isn't the worst movie of the year and it might be an okay rental if you aren't expecting too much from the start.

In the wake of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, it's only appropriate that we should get a generic political thriller to remind us of one of the US' earlier international farces: the Vietnam War. 'The Company You Keep', directed by and starring Robert Redford (yeah, he's still alive), is that thriller.

Redford plays Jim Grant, a widowed lawyer and father who gets exposed by investigative journalist Ben Shepard (Shia LaBeouf) as a former member of Weather Underground (Google it) responsible for the death of a security guard during a botched bank robbery. Forced to go on the run, Grant must dodge the police as Shepard starts to doubt whether Grant is actually guilty of the guard's murder.

Seeking to combine a chase movie with a detective story, the film is bogged down by superfluous characters, caricatured villains, and a third-act that feels more like a soap-opera than a suspense picture. I wouldn't go so far as to say the film has a bad script, but it does have a clunky one. What makes this even more egregious is that 'Company' is filled to the brim with great veteran actors such as Stanley Tucci, Richard Jenkins, Julie Christie, and Susan Surandon (to name a few…), which almost always indicates that the producers have less faith in the script than they do that a Justice League film will actually be made (we all know it won't).

I don't want to make out that this was a bad film, though. In its own unambitious and minor way, it's reasonably entertaining. It could be argued that the actors alone are worth the price of admission. But I can assure you of one thing: when you leave the multiplexes after seeing this, you'll be hard pressed to remember even the last minute of it.