Robert Redford’s newest film, The Company You Keep, is his ninth directorial effort, and Redford clearly has a strong, personal connection to the material. Working with a screenplay by Lem Dobbs (based on Neil Gordon’s book of the same name—the “core” of which Redford has said he responded to), Redford explores multiple themes, all of which permeate Redford’s past work: journalism and ethics; celebrity and the media; a loner who seeks truth; living an authentic life; mentors and mentees; personal and professional regret.

Redford plays Jim Grant, a lawyer living in a wealthy suburb of Albany, New York. In the 1970s Grant was a member of the Weather Underground, the radical antiwar organization that resorted to violence to make its views known. Grant and other Weathermen have been wanted by the FBI for 30 years for a bank robbery gone wrong; Grant himself is accused of murdering a security guard. Grant and his associates long ago assumed new lives and identities in which they remain hidden today.

The discovery and arrest of one of his former colleagues (a superb Susan Sarandon) gets the attention of Ben Shepard (Shia LaBeouf), a local reporter who, with the help of a former girlfriend (an underused Anna Kendrick) working for the FBI, exposes Grant, who promptly flees. Complicating matters is the fact that Grant has been raising a young daughter (Jackie Evancho) by himself since his wife’s tragic death. Grant enlists the help of both family (Chris Cooper) and old colleagues (Stephen Root, Nick Nolte, and Richard Jenkins) as he crosses half the country in search of the one Weatherman who can clear his name. In this case, however, it’s a Weather-woman: his ex-love Mimi Lurie (Julie Christie). Eventually Shepard, the FBI (led by Terrence Howard), and the original investigator (Brendan Gleeson), converge on Grant and Lurie at their old hideaway, a cabin in the Michigan woods. The truth of the decades-old crime is revealed with serious ramifications for all involved.

(I should say here that if it seems like the film has a lot of characters, it does. In fact, the film is so layered with relationships that it is nearly overwhelmed by them. I haven’t even mentioned Stanley Tucci (as LaBeouf’s editor), nor the excellent Brit Marling (as LaBeouf’s love interest).)

Shia LaBeouf (whose energy Redford called “extreme” at the press conference for the film) is in low-key mode here, as is Redford. In fact, if Redford’s key had been any lower, he may not have been heard at all. His characteristic stillness and relaxation is in full view; he works simply and with a strong sense of privacy. One hardly ever sees Redford push or engage in showy histrionics. Redford will turn 77 this August, and while he has finally begun to resemble his age, he retains a powerful screen charisma. Yet I could not help

wishing for more bite, more oomph, more energy, from him. Redford and LaBeouf’s first scene together, in which the dogged young reporter sniffs out his prey, never really pops. It stands in contrast to LaBeouf’s scenes with Tucci, which are more exciting and tense.

In interviews, Redford has stressed the ethical conundrum that LaBeouf’s character faces—whether young Shepard is pursuing the story because of his dedication to journalism, or for his own career advancement. Yet despite Redford’s emphasis of this arc—that Shepard learns something about himself from his pursuit of Grant—the idea is not realized enough in the film. There is a confrontation between Grant and Shepard at the end of the film that forces the younger man to make a choice. Yet the stakes of his dilemma feel so much smaller than those of Grant (who, if captured, will lose his young daughter) that Shepard’s final decision hardly registers.

Grant’s relationships with his Weather Underground colleagues also feel undercooked. Redford gives us smaller, separate scenes between him and Root, Nolte, and Jenkins, but one doesn’t feel the long, complicated history between these men beyond some narrowing eyes and knowing looks. Also anticlimactic is Redford’s final confrontation with Julie Christie. These are two of our greatest film actors—witness the deep, penetrating gazes and resigned sighs—yet why didn’t I feel the enormity and complexity of their shared past? Their characters’ history is more described than felt.

The appearances of Sarandon, Christie, Nolte, and Jenkins are welcome, but distracting. I found myself responding more to the mere sight of Julie Christie at age 72 than to what her character wanted or was doing. Same with the gravel-voiced Nolte; Jenkins fares a little better (perhaps because he’s less famous?). Sarandon, somewhat surprisingly, is the one who really disappears into her character. Her one scene—with LaBeouf, notably—is the finest in the film.

Redford himself has proudly admitted that the film has multiple themes; you can practically hear his future DVD commentary (“old-fashioned shoe leather journalism is dying;” “today’s media is dominated by personalities”), but the film’s plate is so full that the viewer gets only a taste of each dish. There is no doubt Redford and Dobbs are dedicated to the film’s numerous messages, and they should be commended for even making a film in this day and age that raises them. But they haven’t gotten them to fully resonate on screen. The Company You Keep is less than what it could have been.

Synopsis:

Jim Grant (Robert Redford) is a public interest lawyer and single father raising his daughter in the tranquil suburbs of Albany, New York. Grant’s world is turned upside down,when a brash young reporter named Ben Shepard (Shia LaBeouf) exposes his true identity as a former 1970s antiwar radical fugitive wanted for murder. After living for more than 30 years underground, Grant must now go on

the run. With the FBI in hot pursuit, he sets off on a cross-country journey to track down the one person that can clear his name.

Shepard knows the significance of the national news story he has exposed and, for a journalist, this is an opportunity of a lifetime. Hell-bent on making a name for himself, he is willing to stop at nothing to capitalize on it. He digs deep into Grant’s past. Despite warnings from his editor and threats from the FBI, Shepard relentlessly tracks Grant across the country.

As Grant reopens old wounds and reconnects with former members of his antiwar group, the Weather Underground, Shepard realizes something about this man is just not adding up. With the FBI closing in, Shepard uncovers the shocking secrets Grant has been keeping for the past three decades. As Grant and Shepard come face to face in the wilderness of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, they each must come to terms with who they really are.