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REVIEWS
The Company You Keep
Robert Redford makes a welcome return to double-duty
as director and lead actor By David Rooney
ROBERT REDFORD DOES HIS
most compelling work in
some time as both actor
and director in The Company
You Keep, a tense yet admirably
restrained thriller about a fugitive
forced out of hiding after
30 years to prove his innocence.
Adapted with clarity and intelligence
by Lem Dobbs from
Neil Gordon’s novel and lent
distinguishing heft by its roster
of screen veterans, this gripping
drama provides an absorbing
reflection on the courage and
cost of dissent.
Recalling aspects of Sidney
Lumet’s poignant Running
on Empty from 1988, but with
a more subdued emotional
palette, the film opens with
vintage-style news footage
detailing charges against members
of radical antiwar group the
Weather Underground in the
early 1970s for plotting to blow
up buildings in multiple U.S.
cities. A second report follows,
attributing responsibility to the
same group for a Michigan bank
robbery during which a security
guard was killed. While the
robbers were identified, only one
was apprehended.
Hotel Transylvania
A scarily unfunny animated monster movie
that goes awry right off the bat
By Michael Rechtshaffen
T HE
SECOND FEATURE IN AS MANY
months to contain animated zombies
(with Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie
lurking just around the corner), Hotel Transylvania
checks in as an anemic example of
pure concept over precious little content.
Despite the proven talents of first-time
feature director Genndy Tartakovsky
(Dexter’s Laboratory), writers Peter Baynham
(Arthur Christmas) and SNL vet Robert
Smigel and a voice cast headed by Adam
Sandler and Andy Samberg, the collaboration
falls flat virtually from the get-go,
serving up half-hearted sight gags that have
a habit of landing with an ominous thud.
Back in the present, Sharon
Solarz (Susan Sarandon), who
was involved in the robbery
and has been living in hiding
as a Vermont housewife in the
decades since, is preparing
to turn herself in to the FBI
when she is arrested entering
New York state. Coverage from
aggressive young Albany newspaper
reporter Ben Shepard
(Shia LaBeouf) links her to local
civil rights lawyer Jim Grant
(Redford), who declined to take
Solarz’s case.
Eager to impress his prickly
editor (Stanley Tucci), Ben
exploits his access to Diana
(Anna Kendrick), a college
hookup now working for the
bureau. Despite warnings from
her boss Cornelius (Terrence
Howard) to back off, Ben
persists, digging for insights.
His legwork reveals that while
Jim has long been a respected
community member, raising his
11-year-old daughter Isabel (Jacqueline
Evancho) alone since the
death of his wife in an accident
a year earlier, no record of him
exists before 1979. Putting two
and two together, Ben discovers,
just ahead of the feds, that
22
LaBeouf plays a young
reporter who delves into
the mysterious past of a
civil rights lawyer.
Jim is Nick Sloan, another of the
Michigan robbers.
This establishing action is set
up with methodical efficiency
in Dobbs’ screenplay, gaining
momentum when Jim/Nick
whisks Isabel out of town and
into the care of his brother (Chris
Cooper) just as the FBI is closing
in. Meanwhile, Ben continues to
look for neat answers to messy
questions. But a prison interview
with Sharon gives him some
understanding of the commitment
and idealism of the
’70s radicals. This affecting
scene is played with perspicacity,
toughness and compassion
by Sarandon.
Propelled by another moody
score from Cliff Martinez
(Drive, Contagion) that adds a
contemporary edge to Redford’s
solidly conventional style, the
remainder of the film plays out
in pursuit mode.
While it provides for some
Being given a public airing at the Toronto
International Film Festival ahead of its
official Sept. 28 opening, the film could
benefit initially from a monster marketing
push from Sony, but it’s unlikely the “No
Vacancy” sign will be lit for long.
Assuming an unsteady Transylvanian
accent which, like his bat wings, tends to
flit in and out of the picture, Sandler’s
overprotective daddy Dracula is having
trouble shielding his daughter Mavis (Selena
Gomez) from outside elements on the eve
of her 118th birthday. Determined to shut
himself off from those elements after the
death of his wife a century or so earlier at
the hands of an angry mob, Dracula had
constructed a refuge of an exclusive resort
where he and his monstrous ilk could feel
free to be themselves.
For the most part, there’s just a lot of
Dracula shields
his daughter in
a monsters-only
hideout
passing commentary on the
journalistic process and the slow
death of print media, making the
ambitious reporter such a driving
figure perhaps mutes the focus
a little. LaBeouf acquits himself
well in the role. But tracking
Ben’s slow-blooming integrity is
a somewhat prosaic detour in the
concluding scenes, occasioning
some speechy wisdom from Nick
when they finally meet again.
The storytelling is nonetheless
robust and thematically
rich, strengthened by a fine cast.
Redford has done this kind of
earnest man of conscience countless
times before, but he brings
such gravitas and thoughtfulness
to play that he keeps us firmly in
Nick’s corner.
Production companies Voltage
Pictures, Wildwood Enterprises
Cast Robert Redford, Shia
LaBeouf, Julie Christie
Director: Robert Redford
dashing about the hotel’s cavernous hallways
as the assembled voice cast attempts to
lend some personality to the underdeveloped
characters.
Production companies Sony Pictures
Animation
Director Genndy Tartakovsky
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