THE COMPANY YOU KEEP

Saw THE COMPANY YOU KEEP tonight with a friend and was glad I did. The cast was terrific, so many great actors that I was disappointed they all didn't get to do more, most of them taking pretty small parts, I guess to work with Redford, who stars in it and directed and co-produced it.

It's true, as some have said, that he looks old, his face weathered from all that outdoor living he loves, and he moves at times like a man in his seventies, which he is. But he still has a lot of the Redford presence and charisma, and at times moved better than I could. And he gets to act in scenes with Nick Nolte, who's perfect in his role, and Julie Christie and Richard Jenkins and Chris Cooper and Shia LaBeouf, who I liked in his role as a cocky young reporter better than anything I've seen him do in a while. He's never struck me as a real movie star, but surrounded by the movie stars in THE COMPANY YOU KEEP he held his own very well.

Then there's other great actors Redford directed but aren't in scenes with him, like Susan Sarandon, Terence Howard (well they have a small bit together), Sam Elliott, Stanley Tucci, Anna Kendrick, and a lot more. It's an incredible cast, like I said.

The story is familiar, out of the headlines as they say, only the headlines were originally from the late 1960s and first few years of the '70s in which case Redford and some of the others would be playing grandparents instead of parents of still young kids. But then, I have a fifteen year old and I was a radical in the '60s like most of the older characters in this flick. Oh did I mention Brendan Gleeson?

It's the kind of movie ordinarily kept back until closer to Oscar time, serious subject, serious cast, some nostalgia for the stars from the past, etc. But it's out now, and for my taste, worth seeing, though I can see that it might not satisfy a lot of movie goers because, as I said, some of the great actors that are in it aren't really given enough time and story to make their involvement worth it to those who expect them to be doing their usual roles.

Redford's nickname among those who work for him and some who have worked with him is "ordinary Bob," because he likes to keep things low key and natural. This movie does that too, though it does have some tension and some chase scenes, but even those are directed and shot and played as close to "ordinary" as they can get, rather than showy and over dramatic. Check it out, let me know what you think.