Review of The Company You Keep (2012) by Dave S — 10 Jan 2014

Here's yet another example of a "what could have been". Robert Redford (who starts & directs) is in top-form and leads an excellent, A-List ensemble (Shia LeBeouf, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Nick Nolte, Chris Cooper) in a film that never quite lives up to its potential. All starts well, with the action unfolding from the get-go. Redford plays a lawyer in Upstate New York who is hiding a politically scandalous past and must go on the lam as that checkered past comes back to haunt him. The journey he takes leads to many revelations and discoveries, but unfortunately none of them are quite as exciting as they seem.

With a premise as good as this, one would expect the film to move at a pace as engaging as its first ten to fifteen minutes. Unfortunately, it trudges along slowly for nearly two hours.

Redford commits himself fully to the project, but 'The Company You Keep' never quite becomes the film it sets out to be.