The Company You Keep

The Company You Keep, the latest film by director/actor Robert Redford is a movie that has me scratching my head. It's not a bad film but it's certainly not a good one either. The reason it's a head scratcher is because it makes me wonder why this film was even made in the first place. Admittedly I was curious about the film but there was no real payoff and because of that, Company gets one bucket of Killer Korn.




The Company You Keep is tired, tired and practically dead on arrival. When I saw Argo last year I thought it was perfect except for Ben Affleck. He directed that film brilliantly but his acting was atrocious. The Company You Keep was another one of those kinds of films but far worse. The film is about the domestic terrorist group The Weather Underground aka The Weathermen and I would have loved to have been in the room when Robert Redford and his team came up with the idea to make this film. It's a film about old white people on the run from the FBI for thirty years, for killing a security guard at a bank heist. One of these fugitives decides to give herself up and that's when the movie supposedly kicks into gear. The key was turned, the engine revved, but the film never took off, it just spun its wheels.

Robert Redford plays Jim Grant/Nick Sloane, a single father to a child far too young to even be considered his biological daughter, yet the movie never states if she is his stepdaughter. Jim is a lawyer in Albany and is living his very comfortable life when news of Sharon Solarz, played by Susan Sarandon gives herself up. There is never any reason why she does this, she just does and Jim knows it's just a matter of time before the feds come kicking in his door. Before that though, Jim is contacted by Billy Cusimano, played by Stephen Root. Billy wants Jim to be Sharon's lawyer but he declines and recommends another lawyer, around that same time a reporter from the failing Albany Sun Times, Ben Shepard played doggedly by Shia LeBeouf who begins to unravel everything. Ben contacts Jim which sends Jim running.

Jim begins his track meet across the country with Special Agent Cornelius, played by the multi- talented Terence Howard. Jim goes from former member to former passing secret notes and having discussions of jealousy. He sees ex member Donal Fitzgerald played by Nick Nolte, Jed Lewis played by Richard Jenkins in order ti get to the one member that can set things straight with the authorities regarding him and the night in question. That person is an old lover and member of the group Mimi Lurie, played by Julie Christie. What I don't get is why does the character Ben Shepard even exist? His character is almost a throw away character and yet, he's the center piece of all the madness. He pieces all this together but really the movie would have been far better off without the character of Mister Shepard.

This movie looks like Robert wanted to give his old friends one more paycheck and one more time on the big screen, that's the only reason I can see why this movie was made. It was a movie made about characters you don't care for, about a group long forgotten, during a time of civil unrest here at home about the Vietnam War. The movie is flaccid and there's no other way to put it. Everyone looks like paranoid grandparents that ran away from the home instead of running from the law. Even the music by Cliff Martinez is stale and I really like Cliff's music. I think very highly of his talent, but it seems he was uninspired this time around and I can completely understand that, this movie was uninspiring and should be missed. That is unless you are a hardcore Robert Redford fan, even that won't make you like The Company You Keep however. Skip this film unless you need some help getting to sleep and I'll see you at the theater.