Somewhere in this movie is a great film waiting to get out. The cast is great, the acting is generally solid. The script is OK. The locations are good. I love the concept -- of the past catching up with you. I think the problem is the plot. I noticed quite a few holes. For example, the characters keep referring to the bank robbery as 30 years ago. Which means the early 1980s: didn't all those anti-Vietnam rallies happen in the early 1970s, a decade before? Shia LeBoeuf's character has way too much good luck for a journalist. For example, he happens to find out that the police chief's daughter is adopted? Then seemingly within hours, he joins the dots that she must be Robert Redford's daughter? And would Shia also manage to find the cabin in the woods well ahead of a big portion of the FBI staff? And finally the ending. I frankly did not believe that any journalist would throw away such a huge story, and in addition ignore the truth, just because he feels sorry for the guy, or likes him. It ties everything up neatly, but it doesn't ring true. Redford's character was a fugitive, and he was effectively harbouring a criminal in the Julie Christie character. If it was real life, Shia's character would have been fired for being on the spot and not doing his job.
Review of The Company You Keep
