Darling Companion (2012)

The story of a woman who loves her dog more than her husband. And then her husband loses the dog.

Director:

Lawrence Kasdan

Writers:

Meg Kasdan, Lawrence Kasdan

Stars:

Diane Keaton, Kevin Kline, Dianne Wiest

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Diane Keaton	...	Beth
Kevin Kline	...	Joseph
Dianne Wiest	...	Penny
Richard Jenkins	...	Russell
Elisabeth Moss	...	Grace
Mark Duplass	...	Bryan
Ayelet Zurer	...	Carmen
Sam Shepard	...	Sheriff Morris
Lindsay Sloane	...	Ellie
Jay Ali	...	Sam
Robert Bear	...	Possum
Casey	...	Freeway
Paul Kiernan	...	Patient
Jericho Watson	...	Ethan
Yolanda Wood	...	Cop

Storyline

Mother and daughter, Beth and Grace, find a bedraggled dog on the side of the freeway. Taking it home and rescuing it, the dog helps Grace meet a man. But Beth's husband, Joseph, hates the dog and just might cause even more friction in their marriage. While at their remote cabin for a weekend wedding with family, Joseph loses the dog and Beth isn't going home until they find it. With help from their nephew, Joseph's sister, her new boyfriend, and their psychic gypsy maid, the family search high and low for the missing dog and in the process find that they also need to mend their own relationships.

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Plot Keywords:

dog | wedding | search | missing dog | marriage | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some sexual content including references, and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 May 2012 (Israel)

Also Known As:

Atithasi syntrofia

Filming Locations:

Telluride, Colorado, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$39,962 (USA) (20 April 2012)

Gross:

$793,352 (USA) (17 August 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Werc Werk Works, Kasdan Pictures, Likely Story

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Lawrence Kasdan's first directorial effort in 9 years. His last directing job was the thriller Dreamcatcher.

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Goofs

Towards the end of the film they take off in one type of aircraft but land in another totally different type after forcing the aircraft to return having spotted Freeway from it.

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Connections

Featured in The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Episode #20.130 (2012)

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Soundtracks

"Darlin' Companion"
Written by John Sebastian
Performed by Mark Robinette, Ryan Shupe and Craig Miner

User Reviews

Fine movie, sadly disliked by many for good and bad reasons

Of the few releases of the year, "Darling Companion" is perhaps the one that didn't deserve all the hatred is getting. However, let's face it that some it is quite understandable. This marks the first film of Lawrence Kasdan since "The Dreamcatcher" (to some quite a stinker, I don't find it all that much, quite like it) and that makes 9 years; the first screenplay by Meg Kasdan since the glorious "Grand Canyon" back in 1991; then there's a great cast united here and they're at a strange level of their abilities and to most viewers the junction and the lack of more interesting script was the key factor for this being the movie the public weren't expecting.

Playing simple and with some predictability, "Darling Companion" is about a housewife (Diane Keaton) desperate in finding her beloved dog Freeway, lost by her husband (Kevin Kline), who doesn't seem to care much about the new member of the family and end up losing the poor animal while talking on the phone. In case you didn't got the name, the dog was found on a freeway almost freezing to death.

It all happened after their daughter's wedding with the veterinary who treated of Freeway a year ago. So, these people from the city are now stranded in the countryside looking for the dog with the help of another members of the family (Dianne Wiest, Richard Jenkins) and a sort of gypsy/psychic (Ayelet Zurer) who has blurred and foggy visions of Freeway and the place he might has been. The real purpose of the movie is not only finding who's lost but also finding what is lost and that is the human relations between the main couple, always on a merge of the crisis even with the picture of being the perfect family where the husband is too focused on his career as a doctor and the wife is to concerned of being away from her grown up daughters, and of not being loved enough by her man, and now where's the dog, of whom she loves with more enthusiasm than his real partner.

More like a couple's retreat kind of flick, this is a very warming project, very light and with some funny moments. It's far more interesting to see this project of life where all the confusion of a relationship is solved during an particular event than seeing some ridiculous romantic comedy that tends to present perfect lives all around. Despite the difference in the way it treats its issues, far from being those corny rom-coms "Darling Companion" isn't all that much of a mature screenplay though. I think it should have more focus on the couple's background rather than seeing Keaton crying for whatever reasons, focus on some of their pre-existent marital problems. It's just too level. And there's a beautiful yet pointless animated sequence involving the dog's point of view that really takes you out of the movie.

If the story sounds silly, just see it for the actors. Kline is good, Keaton has one of the most decent films of the past 10 years ("The Family Stone" was a disaster next to this and I bet the ratings might be even higher than this) but if this worths a real good view is because of Wiest and Jenkins playing an older couple that has many things to teach everyone around. They're so lovable and charming together, and he's hilarious in the movie. And there's an almost wasted appearance by Sam Shepard playing an sick sheriff. But once again, they're not at their greatest level of acting. That's what killed the enjoyment for viewers, they expected too much of a movie that was proposed to give so few.

The Kasdan couple worked better with the accidents of life in the outstanding "Grand Canyon". In that, miraculous events in the chaotic and stressful day-by-day routine saved people's lives and showed them new ways to connect with someone in the abyss that separates everything and everyone yet they're so close to each other. In "Longtime Companion" it was all about loving more your animal than the person whom you spend your life with, or care less about the faithful animal for reasons unknown, just thinking about himself. A sign of times represented in both films by the same creators. When did we become so egoistical and stopped looking at what's around us? When did our values become so shrunken? Maybe that's the reason people despised the new Kasdan. I liked but I wanted so much more...8/10