Robert J. Maxwell The initial premise of the movie is probably false. Who can believe that the pursuit of some long-forgotten member of the Weather Underground would be a national sensation anymore? Hell, half the nation has learned of Vietnam only through its history books. And the Weather Underground? That's a desktop app, isn't it? Also, the principals who were involved ought not to be as old as the performers in this film. Instead of college kids, forty years ago these rebels would have been in their sedate forties. And it's a little unnerving to see how they've aged. Robert Redford in particular. I single Redford out because he and I are the same age, yet while he's become wrinkled, slow, and flab-bound, through the seasonable intervention of a gracious Providence, I'm as radiantly handsome as ever -- maybe moreso. A shame really.This is the story of Redford, a quiet lawyer in Albany, New York, who is unmasked as the accused killer of a bank guard during a Weather Underground robbery. He's actually innocent. He wasn't even there. Julie Christie did the shooting. Though she could get him off the hook, Redford has no idea where she is and therefore must pursue her through a series of links made up of old comrades, some of whom are helpful, and some who have established new lives and want nothing to do with the past. With the FBI and a reporter hot on his heels, Redford finally tracks her to a tumble down shack near the Canadian border, where he -- in his minimalist way -- tries to talk her into giving herself up for the sake of their daughter, Britt Marling, who is worth sacrificing for because she is an excellent actress and because she belongs to that covey of magnetic blonds that Connecticut has given us over the past decade or so.Fans of the action genre will begin to shift and squirm after the first few minutes. Not a drop of blood in sight. Nobody's head has been wrenched off, nor will any head be so wrenched in the remainder of the film. There is not a shot fired. There is no high-speed pursuit on the freeway. No exploding fireballs. Everyone in phat pants will have changed the channel by now.I found it slow, formulaic, and thoroughly watchable. Instead of "slow", maybe "deliberate" is a better word. There's a lot of talk and the plot is a little complicated, but we are mercifully spared any heated ideological arguments. It's formulaic but the pattern it follows is that of the private detective movie. The protagonist has to find someone and in doing it has to interview a variety of people who might help him towards his goal. It's watchable because, like the characters, each of us shelters some datum from the past that gives us a momentary glow of self satisfaction, just as there are things we've done that we'd much rather forget about.

BobbyT24 I missed this when it first came out. It never made the theaters in my area. It wasn't well-publicized so I passed over it at the video store. I wish someone would have recommended this to me. This is better than you would expect. The cast is UNBELIEVABLE!! So many good actors who have aged and fit the characters of 1970s underground terrorists perfectly. Robert Redford's directing has always had a bit of heavy drama that isn't necessary, but for the most part this is a very good political thriller in the vein of "All The President's Men" set in modern times.Basic plot: Redford is a well-respected, recently-widowed attorney in New York with a young daughter. A woman is arrested in a nearby town for a bank robbery from 30 years prior and went underground with several other players from that era - including Redford. Suddenly, a tenacious young reporter starts tracking the story and ends up opening a can of worms where domino upon domino falls pushing Redford into hiding and ultimately into revealing a past he might wish had stayed hidden.The acting is first-rate by all involved. I think Redford is really too old to have an 11yo daughter, but that is minor in the scope of the story. The political cat-and-mouse game between the underground members who can't even trust each other at this late date, the dogged FBI who have never stopped looking for them, and the ever-present reporter create a whirlwind of intrigue of "did he/didn't he" until all the pieces start falling into place. The story bobs and weaves through several venues and gives a believability to how difficult it must be to live on the lamb for most of your life. Once you create a family and want to settle down into normalcy must be such a weight and would be heartbreaking to see it blown apart for past transgressions.Kudos to all the actors who were willing to go on screen past their glory years. It added an element of realism we don't get much anymore in today's glamourized Hollywood blockbusters with all the pretty people. This is one I am very thankful I picked up. I will be recommending it to my friends as a good story to keep your interest until the very end. It is well worth your time.

Alex Deleon The Company You Keep; A Robert Redford film Viewed at Cinestar 4, Sony Center, Berlin, Sunday night, August 4, 2013. THE COMPANY YOU KEEP Directed and starring Robert Redford is a Political thriller about Weatherman Underground Radicals of the sixties surfacing four decades later, and a gung-ho reporter on a provincial newspaper tracking the story. Co stars, Shia LaBeouf, Julie Christie, And the young daughter, (Jackie Evancho, in an important role). Other supporting roles, the Negro police chief, the Albany Sun newspaper editor, and several other old timers. This is essentially an old timers film to see what stars of the sixties and early seventies look like forty and fifty years later -- At least that was my main interest here in Berlin on a summer Sunday evening with nothing better to do. Redford has aged crunchingly and his face is so ravaged that he looks older than his actual age (76) but he still has the star charisma and moves like a younger man looking better as the pic progresses and you get used to his older look -- Ravaged but instantly recognizable playing the father of a twelve year old which makes him seem younger, but the kid could really be his grand daughter. In any case all the scenes between them are extra good and Redford comes. across as a truly loving and affectionate father. The father child chemistry was perfect. Later Redford is also good as the fugitive on the lam, in fact this is his most convincing performance of late, playing an underground sixties rebel wrongfully accused of a murder that was actually committed by his old flame (and mother of an older daughter who was given up for adoption) -- Julie Christie (now 72) . MS. Christie doesn't appear until late in the picture and is all but unrecognizable as the erstwhile alluring English "Darling" of the swinging sixties -- but still looks interesting with that pointed nose as a ravaged old lady who was once a beauty. (Anatomically speaking the whole picture can be seen as a study of Noses!)In the story Redford, a former Weatherman, has been living under an assumed name and a new identity for 35 years, so if he was, say, in his mid twenties in the mid 60s he would be in his late 60s at the present time of the picture -- which is a little old to have an eleven year old daughter, but not out of the question. In any case he plays the father convincingly and the ending where he is finally reunited with her and they walk away from the camera chatting with no sound, is quite poetic and heart warming. Susan Sarandon (a mere 66). appears right at the beginning, also as an old time Weatherman who turns herself in and there is a long scene with stark facial closeups between her and Shia Laboeuf, is an investigative reporter interviewing her in jail . This is Sarandon's only big scene and affords a magnificent study of her ski-jump nasal structure -- and is crucial to the whole story as she expounds the entire philosophy of the radical anti-war movement of the sixties The whole movie abounds in facial closeups so it's pretty clear that Redford has no hang- ups about showing his age on screen. . . . Or the ages of his contemporaries! Nick Nolte (72) is a surprise coming out of the woodwork in the middle of the pic, again nearly unrecognizable, except for the voice in a small but very positive part. Chris Cooper (62) plays Redford's younger brother in his usual business like manner and has a nice hairdo (for an older cat!). Shia Laboeuf, 27 (in horn rimmed glasses throughout (like Clark Kent) was surprisingly appealing as the compulsive ambitious young reporter and is obviously a comer on the current Hollywood scene. I saw him here in February during the Berlinale in an abominable action movie set in Bucharest, and thought he was just another young nothing of an actor, but -- gulp -- I was wrong. Mea Culpa. Overall it was a bit of a shaggy dog story as we travel all over the map from Albany to the mid-west, with Redford trying to find the one!person (Christie) who can clear his name of an old murder rap, but the characters kept it going and the suspense of the chase was there. Not a great movie but pretty good "time pass" as they say in India, especially to see old stars still earning their keep in Geritol roles. Christie I found exceptionally interesting to watch in the crucial long scene in the cabin with Redford by the fire faces partially in shadow beautifully shot, in a very un-Darlingesque appearance.All in all it was a routine story trying to remind us of a little sixties history with maybe something to say about internal terrorism. There is one scene where Redford visits a bald headed old crony who is now a respected college professor and this guy tells him that the adventures they lived through in the sixties are like Ancient History to his students These days! ~ What this movie does, above all, is remind older viewers that Time Marches On and we will all soon be history ourselves --- but that is maybe a subtext that was not intended. For me the main interest of the movie was the Nostalgia factor ---the lingering studies of aging star faces with the sappy younger generation basically in the background. This definitely not a youth oriented movie but more a movie for survivors of the sixties like myself -- an era that has now become more remote in the collective memory than World War 2 -- as old and jaded as the Rolling stones and Paul MacCartney. Paul --- er, who??

g-bodyl The Company You Keep welcomes back Robert Redford to the director's chair and compared to his other films, this thriller seems more low-key and it arrives with less fanfare. Now not a fan of politics, I am keenly aware of Redford's political thoughts and thus his stance as a moderate liberal gives this film a conscience. In other words, it's a tense thriller that talks about an important part of our history which is practically the unrest the Vietnam War caused in this country.Robert Redford's film is about a former Weather Underground radical leader named Jim Grant who has been discovered after thirty years of being on the run as he was accused of a bank robbery. Now he is on the run and is forced to meet with old associates of his to prove his innocence and he also has to face the aggressive newspaper reporter named Ben Shepard.This film must have set a record for how many big names appear in this movie. I've never seen so many Oscar-nominated actors and actresses appear in one film. But for the most part, they all do well despite the majority of them having small screentimes. Robert Redford is still a great actor at his age. Since everyone from Susan Sarandon to Stanley Tucci to Brendan Gleeson all do well, I will only mention the weakest actor here and that is Shia LaBeouf. He was annoying at times and he couldn't catch up to everyone's starpower here.Overall, The Company You Keep is a quiet, slow-burning thriller but it has some political questions to ask and for the kind of thriller it is, it's very sharp. It's well-written and features heavy dialogue. I wouldn't call this a cliché thriller since there were some unexpected surprises. It did a good job on holding my interest and I actually learned a thing or two about American history. I rate this film 9/10.