Cine Me

 

The Company You Keep

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1381404/

 

http://www.sonyclassics.com/thecompanyyoukeep/

 

"Redford's ninth film as a director and one of his knottiest and most involving...a welcome mixture of juice and grit...Evoking the government-chase thrills of Three Days of the Condor, the questioning of journalistic ethics in Absence of Malice and the radicals-in-hiding premise of Running On Empty - in other words, movies for thoughtful adults -...a pulsating drama of a man who goes on an intricate, often interior journey to outrun his past."
-Mary Corliss, TIME

 

Robert Redford's best film in years. He manages to infuse so many ideas and passions into an engaging thriller.

 

Based on the Neil Gordon novel of the same name, the film stars Shia LaBeouf as a young journalist on the trail of Jim Grant (Redford), a former anti-war radical who hid from the FBI for more than 30 years. Terrence Howard plays the FBI agent on the case, and Susan Sarandon is the recently-captured fugitive who was part of the same organization as Redford’s character. The all-star cast also includes Julie Christie, Nick Nolte, Anna Kendrick (who stars in this fall’s Pitch Perfect and may be joining the cast of Captain America 2), Brendan Gleeson, Stanley Tucci and Chris Cooper.

 

Although it's based on a novel, this film could easily be based on fact.

 

Screenwriter Lem Dobbs, who worked with Steven Soderbergh on “Haywire,” “The Limey” and “Kafka,” has fashioned a script that’s propulsive, while allowing for plenty of breathing room. The themes of aging, atonement and the death of idealism alone add layers of complexity and richness to the tale. But on top of that, Dobbs digs deeply into the question of terrorism and its definition. What’s the difference between the Weather Underground and al-Qaeda? The film asks this through Ben, a character who wasn’t even born by the end of the Vietnam War -- a war that some of Jim’s colleagues considered itself a form of terrorism.
“The Company You Keep” looks at the notion of morality -- both the shifting, relativistic kind and the more inflexible variety -- from more than one angle, and without obvious judgment. It has a story to tell, not an ax to grind.
It also features a splendid depiction of real, 21st-century journalism as practiced on the ground: crippled, idealistic and more than slightly desperate. Stanley Tucci is great as Ben’s beleaguered editor.
In the end, there’s a love story at the heart of “Company.” In fact, there’s more than one. It offers no apologies for the old act of violence that precipitates its action, but it holds a deep affection for the gray areas of dissension, debate and disillusionment that sometimes leave blood on the floor.

 

How far would you go for your beliefs? How far is too far? When does being apolitical become an act of cowardice?

  All issues worth raising, even in a deck as dramatically stacked as this.

 

Highly recommend.