The company you keep

The company you keep is valuable

By GalaTView Staff

Photo By Courtesy

Jim Grant (Robert Redford) is a public interest lawyer and single father raising his daughter in the tranquil suburbs of Albany, New York.  Grant’s world is turned upside down,when a brash young reporter named Ben Shepard (Shia LaBeouf) exposes his true identity as a former 1970s antiwar radical fugitive wanted for murder.  After living for more than 30 years underground, Grant must now go on the run. With the FBI in hot pursuit, he sets off on a cross-country journey to track down the one person that can clear his name.

    Shepard knows the significance of the national news story he has exposed and, for a journalist, this is an opportunity of a lifetime.  Hell-bent on making a name for himself, he is willing to stop at nothing to capitalize on it.   He digs deep into Grant’s past.   Despite warnings from his editor and threats from the FBI, Shepard relentlessly tracks Grant across the country.

    As Grant reopens old wounds and reconnects with former members of his antiwar group, the Weather Underground, Shepard realizes something about this man is just not adding up.  With the FBI closing in, Shepard uncovers the shocking secrets Grant has been keeping for the past three decades. As Grant and Shepard come face to face in the wilderness of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, they each must come to terms with who they really are.

With terrific ensemble cast there is a reasonable amount of tension throughout, where one wonders what will happen next. These people exist in real life, some characters felt cartoonish and unbelievable while standing atop their mighty soapbox but actors like Shia and Robert are still able to wrestle such negative points to the ground. However, things to say about pernicious U.S. government policies of the day that engendered the Weathermen’s sometimes excessive protests — yet another deeply satisfying evening of cinema from the uniquely gifted, unfailingly dependable Robert Redford.