The Company You Keep - C+

Rated R, 125 minutes

"The Company You Keep" is a tense yet miscast thriller 

Shia LeBeouf and Chris Cooper

Bart Simpson had a saying: "I never thought this was humanly possible, but this both sucks and blows." Though the tense new Robert Redford thriller "The Company You Keep" isn't by any means terrible, though its casting is its most impressive attribute and its biggest flaw. A tad too long yet peppered with some suspenseful moments, some of it works and other times it doesn't. A wanted man and former member of the revolutionary militant group the Weather Underground (Redford, starring and directing) goes on the run after a journalist (Shia LaBeouf) outs him in this political thriller based on Neil Gordon's 2003 novel of the same name. "The Company You Keep" is a serviceable spy-hide-in-plain-sight thriller, with solid footing and direction, but hampered by its miscasting. Redford's first mistake was casting himself in the title role and there's just no way around saying this: he's just too old for the role and it's particularly a stretch to believe he has a young child. And while it's nice seeing him paired with the still radiant Julie Christie, she is also too old, as is the usually gruff Nick Nolte, both playing former colleagues. The rest of the star-studded cast performs well; LeBeouf is solid, as is Susan Sarandon, Brit Marling, Chris Cooper and Terrence Howard (Cooper in particular would've been a better fit in Redford's role). Richard Jenkins, Anna Kendrick, Stephen Root, Brendan Gleeson and Sam Elliott round out the impressive cast, though it can be a tad distracting with a name actor popping up in every other role. "The Company You Keep" is a decent but flawed spy thriller and the Redford mystique may draw some in, but it's otherwise a disappointment for that reason.

Wes's Grade: C+