DIANE KEATON KEVIN KLINE DIANNE WIEST MARK DUPLASS RICHARD JENKINS SAM SHEPARD
Darling Companion
There are lots of films that revolve around dogs and animal companions. However, few of those films use the animal as the central focus to move the plot. Marley & Me is one of those rare exceptions where the dog is the star of the movie. That film was something altogether different from Darling Companion. The dog in this film is only featured in two small segments; it's basically a means to push the story, much like an airplane crash would be to a deserted island movie. The ensemble cast is certainly an eclectic one, led by Oscar winner Diane Keaton in the same outfit, same hair and same character portrayal we have seen from her for the past decade. Kline is the film's only performance nugget.
After Beth (Keaton) found a dog on the side of the interstate a few years ago (she named him Freeway), he has become the centerpiece of a very stressful family. Beth’s busy spine doctor husband, Joseph (Kline), loses the beloved dog on a walk after their youngest daughter’s wedding at their second home in the mountains of Colorado. The remaining family, including Joseph’s sister Penny (Wiest) and her new, eager boyfriend Russell (Jenkins) as well as Penny’s single son, Bryan, stay to help look for the dog. Beth worries herself into quite a state, blaming Joseph for paying more attention to his cell phone than the dog. Through their frustration and searching, they manage to find a way to reconnect the life they seem to have gotten detached from.
Darling Companion is directed by Lawrence Kasdan, who made French Kiss with Kevin Kline, and it has that same dry, snarky humor Kline has become famous for. Kline is good at sarcasm and it's that type of realism from his character that made this movie bearable. Keaton, as she typically does, plays this raving, non-stop talking, scarf wearing female. Many of the situations these characters find themselves in are uncreative and tediously boring. The film itself runs way too long and the subplots with all the different relationships reduce it to a soap opera. To make things even more ridiculous, Ayelet Zurer plays Carmen, a gypsy character who can see through Freeway’s eyes and leads everyone on a wild goose chase for over an hour of the film.
It was a nice scene having Oscar nominees Jenkins, Kline and Shepard all in the fishing sequence. It was atrocious, however, having the animated dream sequence where Beth imagines what might have happened to Freeway. Keaton’s character talks about the dog in a way that makes people who don’t have animals (or even those that do, yet treat them realistically) just roll their eyes: “He has no wilderness experience” she exclaims, to which Kline’s character sarcastically says, “he is a dog”. Darling Companion is about much more than a dog, but even still isn’t very entertaining or memorable.
Final Thought – One very long and nauseating dog search and rescue soap opera.
Grade C
By: Dustin Chase W.
Editor: Michael Woody
Dr. Donna Copeland’s
2nd OPINION
I suppose that if one is a dog lover, this film would be easier to tolerate—not that it is entirely about a dog. It is primarily about couples working through their relationships—ad nauseum. The relationships as well as their conflicts seem contrived simply to cover different ages and different points of view. There is the main couple, Beth (Diane Keaton) and Joseph (Kevine Kline), whose issue is that he is a preoccupied surgeon and she a housewife with all the usual resentments. Now that their last daughter has left home, they’re left to deal with their marriage. His sister Penny (Dianne Wiest) and Russell (Richard Jenkins) are older as well, but this is the second time around in choosing a mate. The younger people in relationships include Grace (Elisabeth Moss) and Sam (Jay Ali), who are in the first blush of marital bliss (their wedding actually takes place during the film); and Bryan (Mark Duplass), Penny’s son, and Carmen (Ayelet Zurer), who fall in love during the movie. Now, isn’t it just peachy that everyone gets matched up together? There will be no surprises in the conflicts either; they will be familiar to all.
I think that Darling Companion’s failing is that it is just too sweet and “correct” to hold much interest. The only dash of spice for me was Carmen and her gypsy-ness, but not much comes of that. She has visions of where the lost dog (darling companion) might be. She sees a blue house and a woman with red hair. And if, indeed, the dog had been at the blue house with the dog named Blue, it would have made for an interesting discussion. Despite their skepticism, the whole party branches out on trip after trip following up on her psychic intuition and any other hunches they might have, mostly to no avail. But the many hours of searching gives a perfect opportunity for couples to really talk to one another, which, as noted, is what the movie is really about.
It seems like Lawrence Kasdan, the writer (with wife Meg) and director, has gone back in his history to pull out The Big Chill, his successful movie from 1983; i.e., couples working on their problems to retrieve something they’ve lost. This current film has a stellar cast, so the acting is outstanding, but what might have been new to the viewer in 1983 is not so interesting in current times when the problems the characters are experiencing are not new any more. In fact, with all the reality shows, sitcoms, Dr. Phil, and Oprah, we’re a bit overloaded.
Grade: C-
