Review of The Company You Keep (2012) by Hani H — 31 Aug 2013

The Company You Keep is a disappointing film that I found to be very dull and boring. I was actually looking forward to The Company You Keep because I thought it had an excellent cast, unfortunately the cast is the only thing that I found to be tolerable in this film.

I found the screenplay by Lem Dobbs to be poorly written and lackluster. This film's story could've been something but instead I fount it to be one giant mess. For starters I just didn't care about what was going on screen, after the first 10 minutes I just stopped caring because I found the story to be lifeless.

To me the story was also very predictable. Also you care about none of these characters, there are suppose to be some suspenseful scenes but there not suspenseful because you do not care about these characters.

Some people may have different opinions on the film's script but I just found it to be very boring and had me checking the time every five minutes. The directing isn't that much better than the script which is disappointing.

Director Robert Redford tries to make this movie into something it isn't and why that doesn't work is because, once again, the script. He tries to make this a smart thriller with some suspense but it just did not work in my opinion.

As I said earlier the acting is the only thing that somewhat worked even though there are a few weak links. All the veteran actors in this movie give fine performances, the only performances that felt like actors acting were by the film's younger cast members Shia LaBeouf and Anna Kendrick even though I think they are both good actors.

In the end The Company You Keep is a boring film that only offers a few good performances, but, that is not enough for me to recommend this film. Skip it.