The Company you Keep (2012)

In Brief: Sharon Stolzar (Susan Sarandon) leaves her family one morning, and while going into New York, she's arrested by the FBI. Sharon has spent the last 30 or so years living under a assumed identity after her student activist group, The Weather Underground, shot a security guard during a bank robbery. Her capture sparks a Journalist (Shia LaBeouf) to look into her story, and start following the connections to Jim Grant (Robert Redford) who appears to know more then he's letting on, about the activity of The weather Underground.




Lets take a look at the cast of this film for a Minute, I've mentioned Sarandon, Redford and LaBeouf, But how about adding a few more names to it? Nick Nolte, Chris Cooper, Stanley Tucci, Terrence Howard, Richard Jenkins, Anna Kendrick, Sam Elliot, Stephen Root, Brit Marling, Brendan Gleeson and Julie Christie. And this isn't some shitty compilation story. Everyone here brings a strong performance. The down side? Outside of its 2 lead actors, they'll be luck to have a screen time of 10 minutes.
Now, The company you keep is based on actual events, you know, that phrase that perks up the ears of the Academy. But this isn't just about people who protested, and got done up by the government for vocally opposing an Unpopular war and Injustices in the world. When protesting wasn't heard, they got violent. The film doesn't really go into, was it right to do this, and I don't think it touches enough on the "do they regret it or stand by they're actions". It lightly romanticize their actions at points, and puts some focus on what they've had to give up because of those actions. It's a interesting story, as things begin to unfold, but it never does a lot with its characters. They're all well performed, but most aren't really developed. It's just, Oh, i use to do that, but now i do this, and so and so is here, you should go visit them, but first, lets do some exposition.
Redford has made a good movie here, It moves at a great pace, never forging ahead too quickly and never staying long enough for you to tire of the sights. While there are bound to be people that disagree with the films subject matter and the way it portrays these people (Checking out the IMDB page for this, i was reminded of looking at the page for BOY A after really enjoying it). Some people won't be able to remove the film from the factual events, and thats going to spoil what's otherwise a fine film.