The Company You Keep: The guests exceed their talking points

The Company You Keep (2012) • View trailer 
3.5 stars. Rating: R, for profanity
By Derrick Bang

Almost four decades later, Robert Redford continues to flee from The Establishment.

The Company You Keep has some pleasant echoes of 1975’s Three Days of the Condor, particularly during the first act. Granted, this new thriller lacks any sort of spy element, but in both cases Redford’s man on the run must outwit better organized and far more numerous pursuers, while we audience members attempt to solve the twisty mystery that fuels the hunt.

FBI Agent Cornelius (Terrence Howard, left) is quite annoyed by the arrogance displayed
by journalist Ben Shepard (Shia LaBeouf), and even angrier that rookie agent Diana
(Anna Kendrick) apparently allowed her previous relationship with this reporter to
cloud her professional judgment. Somebody's head is about to roll; meanwhile,
long-dormant domestic terrorists continue to elude what Cornelius regards as justice.

The political element is significantly different, however, reflecting a greater maturity on Redford’s part. His CIA researcher in Three Days of the Condor was an undisputed good guy caught in a conspiracy that anticipated the energy crisis: a vividly black-and-white scenario that ultimately made a savior of the great Fourth Estate, and its ability to keep the American public informed about vile doings.

Screenwriter Lem Dobbs’ view of newspaper journalists is a bit more complicated in The Company You Keep, and the political subtext is various shades of gray; indeed, it could be argued that Redford’s character here deserves to be caught and punished. Absolute right and wrong are more difficult to pin down, although confirmed leftists will be cheered by the fact that various good fights still seem worth the effort.

The tone also is agreeable; the shrill preaching that characterized Redford’s previous political drama, 2007’s Lions for Lambs, is largely absent here. Granted, this new film also relies too much on talking heads at times, particularly during a final act that wears out its welcome; some judicious trimming could have made a better-paced drama out of this somewhat self-indulgent 121-minute experience.

That said, it’s hard not to be impressed by the cast Redford assembled (he also directed). You’ll rarely find an ensemble as accomplished as Julie Christie, Susan Sarandon, Chris Cooper, Stanly Tucci, Richard Jenkins, Brendan Gleeson and Nick Nolte; and tomorrow’s stars are equally well represented by Shia LaBeouf, Brit Marling and Anna Kendrick.

Many of these performers pop up in relatively small roles, which ordinarily might be distracting, or invite an accusation of stunt casting. But everybody perfectly fits their parts, and it’s hard to argue with the results (at least, from an acting standpoint). In that sense, The Company You Keep hearkens back to Hollywood’s golden age, when similarly star-laden casts weren’t all that unusual.

Red Riding Hood: Not Grimm enough

Red Riding Hood (2011) • View trailer for Red Riding Hood
Three stars (out of five). Rating: PG-13, for violence, bits of grue and fleeting sensuality
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 3.11.11


Having been dumped rather unceremoniously from the Twilight film series, after bringing a respectable adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's first book to the big screen, director Catherine Hardwicke came up with a rather droll response: She bundled the same elements into a fresh (but familiar) package, apparently hoping to kick-start her own franchise.

Having already absorbed the shock of her only sister's brutal murder by a
marauding werewolf, Valerie (Amanda Seyfried, foreground left) and her
parents (Billy Burke and Virginia Madsen) are horrified to learn that the beast
probably lives concealed within their own village: perhaps even as a trusted
friend or neighbor.

So, while this new Red Riding Hood ostensibly is drawn from the Charles Perrault/Brothers Grimm fairy tale, David Johnson's script actually is a swoony, Gothic-style romance set in the medieval times of a world not quite our own, with a plucky young heroine torn between the two young men who love her, while their village is beset by a ferocious, magical creature.

Sound familiar?

Although the many coincidences can't be accidental, Hardwicke's film has its own merits. For starters, production designer Thomas E. Sanders has done very impressive work with this story's setting: the isolated township of Daggerhorn, a rough-hewn clutch of wooden dwellings nestled amid the dark and scary woods that completely surround its citizens. The trees themselves are malevolent, their trunks sprouting long, spiky thorns just waiting to impale the unwary or careless.

Life would be difficult under the best of circumstances, but Daggerhorn has long been plagued by its own additional menace: a marauding werewolf that has inspired a ritual of dread in all these people. Inclined to be superstitious by nature — these are, we must remember, unenlightened times — the townsfolk slaughter their prize livestock each full moon, as an offering to the beast, in the hopes that this will prevent it from killing people.

As the story opens, this uneasy "arrangement" seems to have worked for many years, during which the werewolf hasn't decreased the local population. But just as we're introduced to our heroine, Valerie (Amanda Seyfried), the beast strikes again, claiming the life of Valerie's sister. This ghastly event forestalls Valerie's intention to run away with Peter (Shiloh Fernandez), the somewhat wild young man she has loved her entire life. This rather reckless plan seemed like Valerie's only course of action, because her parents — Cesaire (Billy Burke) and Suzette (Virginia Madsen) — have decreed that she is to marry Henry (Max Irons), scion of the town's wealthiest family.

Peter, something of a "bad boy," is only a poor woodcutter, like Valerie's father; Henry, the good boy, is a much more "respectable" blacksmith. (I can't quite see the difference, so we must assume that Daggerhorn has its own unique caste system.)