The Company You Keep

Better title: "The Price You Pay"
The criticism of this movie was originally started by the press's talking heads, with them only knowing the movie's topic and Redford's politics.

I am conservative who is organically suspicious of the press and it's motives, regardless of the side they come down upon. So I went to see it anyways, mostly because I wanted to see a particular actor's performance. I AM CONVINCED THE PRESS MISSED THE ENTIRE POINT OF THE MOVIE.

This film does not glorify terrorism. Quite the opposite. It shows how a person can cross the line from being an "activist" to being a felon/terrorist. It is sort of a retrospective of an activist's two lives - one he had to abandon once he crossed the line, the other, the second life he had to build afterward. In both cases, the focus of this movie is more on the private price he inadvertently pushed off on loved ones to avoid paying his public price for his acts.

The reader must understand that Sloan was guilty of some felony...

Fantastic
The DVD is not yet available, but I saw the international screening of this movie in Venice back in September 2012. I did not get into the premier (I'm not a star or VIP), just a guy who loves to travel and wanted to see Jackie Evancho in her first major movie. I was able to get a ticket to the public screening. The movie will probably appeal to many, but mainly to the 60s generation and Jackie's fans. It is a well done portrayal of someone who did some bad things while protesting, went into hiding, changed his name and now his past has caught up to him. Jackie plays his daughter whom he will lose if he gets caught and blamed for a killing. He sends her to his brother's and then proceeds to try to find those from his past that might be able to help him. Jackie has about 12-15 minutes of on screen time in about 10 scenes. She, Robert and Shia are the only actors who are in scenes from the beginning of the movie until the very end. She does a wonderful and very believable job...

THE OVER THE HILL GANG
Sharon Solarz (Susan Sarandon) turns herself into the FBI. She was a long time Weatherman (SDS) fugitive that was involved in bank robbery decades ago where a person was killed. This sets off a chain of events that ripples through the other fugitives of the group, particularly NY attorney Jim Grant (Robert Redford) who for some reason never made it to Putney. Jim has a daughter (kudos to Jackie Evancho) and goes on the lam. He becomes the attention of a national man hunt and is also pursued by Albany reporter Ben Shepard (Shia LaBeouf) who broke the story. Ben discovers that this saga has layers.

The characters are not only well developed, but they evolve within the film. There is a slightly layered mystery. We get clues about each layer prior to it being revealed. The film utilizes the 60's movement as background with the expected speeches, but also looks at the human side of things which are not as black and white. Mildly heart warming too.

The film has a few...

Click to Editorial Reviews