'THE COMPANY YOU KEEP'

'THE COMPANY YOU KEEP' (R) (2 STARS)

Written by Lem Dobbs based on his novel
Directed by Robert Redford
Actors: Robert Redford, Shia LaBeouf, Julie Christie, Susan Sarandon, Brendan Gleeson, Brit Marling, Jackie Evancho, Sam Elliot, Richard Jenkins, Anna Kendrick, Nick Nolte, Terrence Howard.

Robert Redford has aged gracefully, sometimes looking as youthful as he did in "The Natural" back in 1984, like in his new directorial effort "The Company You Keep". The movie lost me early but it always got me to thinking about Redford's past acting and directing career. It got me thinking about the late, great Gene Siskel's opinion that Redford always seemed stiff, never letting loose until he let go comically in 1986's "Legal Eagles". I didn't agree totally with Gene on that one but after Redford's latest I do think his latest directing efforts are stiff and self important. What happened to the Redford who directed the powerful "Ordinary People" and the delightful masterpiece "Quiz Show"?

Redford has taken a political topic from a novel by Lem Dobbs that deals with past mistakes and a movement that was for peaceful rebellion but turned into violence and innocent people being killed. The story introduces to "The Weathermen", a group that was protesting the Vietnam War. They went into rob a bank and wound up killing a security guard who had a wife and kids. Now the group is on the run and one of them, now a housewife, is going to turn herself in for the killing but the F.B.I. swoops in and nabs her. Then an eager reporter tries to track down others including a lawyer played by Redford. The first thing that turned me off about this story is that with the Boston bombings and other terrorist acts why should us movie goers now care about this stilted, dated political story.

I was bored by this story plus this kind of thing was done much better back in the 80's! in Sidney Lumet's powerful and wonderful "Running On Empty" which is ten times better than this story. Redford has lost his way big time with his latest two insufferable directing efforts, "The Conspirator" and the horrible "Lions For Lambs". "The Company You Keep" is much better than those two but it still is dated, corny and sometimes annoying. The saving graces are the top notch cast of wonderful actors, a few that are some of my favorites. A movie with the ageless and awesome Susan Sarandon, Sam Elliot, Richard Jenkins, Nick Nolte and Brendan Gleeson? Get out of here! That brings me to the only time that this movie is on fire, when the still breathtaking Julie Christie is on screen with Redford. They are great together and their scenes are the only ones in the movie that got me stirred up but it's way too late.

The movie really suffers when it concentrates on the reporter character played by Shia LaBeouf. I usually like LaBeouf but here I hated his character who is smug, annoying and weakly written. When the movie stops to have him hit on a woman, played by Brit Marling, who is part of the story he is working on, I cringed. The scenes with the reporter are dumb, fake and his scenes with his editor, played by Stanley Tucci are embarrassing. This story just has no juice and has nothing to say really plus it is talky and Redford is just becoming preachy and acting even older than his age. The crowd I saw it with was mostly senior citizens and they clapped in the end but I think this movie insults them, like it's good medicine being poured down our throats. Yuck! I miss the fun and powerful Redford from "The Natural", "Electric Horseman" and "Quiz Show". Where did the once influential Robert Redford go?