The Company You Keep

The Company You Keep, a recent, Robert Redford film just out on DVD did not do that well at the box office, but it may be worth the rental. I found it decent, but not spectacular. It was billed as a suspenseful thriller, but was actually more of a slow-paced drama. The story however, was very interesting, based on true events during the late 1960s and early 1970s. A radical group of young people called the "Weathermen" had splintered from the popular anti-Vietnam War movement and became domestic terrorists. They did some bad things, bombings and such. They ended up killing a security guard during a bank robbery, before they went underground. To me, this story stream was worth pursuing, especially in our current world situation. Unfortunately, the movie focused on a few remaining characters 30+ years later when they were much older, in hiding, and mellowed with age and comfortable with their middle class suburban lifestyles. One of the Weathermen, Susan Sarandon, turns herself in for unexplained reasons, sending the rest of the group into turmoil. I kept hoping for some flashbacks to bring the characters into deeper focus, but instead the story centered on a young, ambitious journalist, Shia LaBeouf, and his attempts to investigate and uncover Robert Redford and the rest of the gang. Here, the story fell apart. He was completely unbelievable as an aggressive journalist. His acting was flat and uninspired, dialogue cliché. I've seen so many great journalists in films, so perhaps my expectations were too high. The facts and breaks in the case seemed to just fall into his lap. He was always two steps ahead of the FBI – which by the way, were also portrayed very cliché and unoriginal. Robert Redford has some bright spots in the movie, but not as a terrorist on the run, instead, as an aging father who loves his young daughter. There is no real suspense; the movie is much too predictable. The writers, producer and director missed the mark on this one. They should've focused on the background, feelings and emotions of the Weathermen more deeply, forgetting their paltry attempts at "thrill" and "suspense." I don't really recommend this film unless there's nothing better to watch this evening! Or, you adore Robert Redford.