''Darling Companion'' is a 2012 American

comedy drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

film directed by

Lawrence Kasdan Lawrence Edward Kasdan (born January 14, 1949) is an American filmmaker. He is the co-writer of the ''Star Wars'' films '' The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980), '' Return of the Jedi'' (1983), '' The Force Awakens'' (2015), and '' Solo: A Star Wars ...

, written by Kasdan and his wife Meg, and starring

Diane Keaton Diane Keaton (née Hall; born January 5, 1946) is an American actress. She has received List of awards and nominations received by Diane Keaton, various accolades throughout her career spanning over five decades, including an Academy Award, a Bri ...

and

Kevin Kline Kevin Delaney Kline (born October 24, 1947) is an American actor. In a career spanning over five decades, he has become a prominent leading man across both Kevin Kline on screen and stage, stage and screen. List of awards and nominations recei ...

. Filming took place in

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

in 2010 and was released on April 20, 2012.

Plot

Beth Winter ( Keaton) rescues a lost dog from the roadside and names him Freeway. Her children have grown up and moved away, and her husband, Joseph ( Kline), is distracted and self-involved. Beth forms a strong friendship with the dog and is deeply upset when, after her daughter's wedding, her husband loses the dog. They engage the service of a psychic gypsy to find the dog again. In the end after finally giving up, the family boards an airplane. While flying over the mountains, Beth sees the dog and her husband fakes a ruptured appendix to have the pilot turn the airplane around. In one last attempt at a search, they scour the trees in the area Beth saw the dog, when at last Freeway appears in a field and runs to Beth, reunited at last, bringing the family closer together.

Cast

Mark Duplass Mark David Duplass (born December 7, 1976) is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, and musician. With his brother Jay Duplass, he started the film production company Duplass Brothers Productions in 1996, for which they wrote and directed ''The ...

as Bryan Alexander *

Richard Jenkins Richard Dale Jenkins (born May 4, 1947) is an American actor. He is well known for his portrayal of deceased patriarch Nathaniel Fisher on the HBO funeral drama series ''Six Feet Under (TV series), Six Feet Under'' (2001–2005). He began his c ...

as Russell *

as Beth Winter *

as Dr. Joseph Winter *

Elisabeth Moss Elisabeth Singleton Moss (born July 24, 1982) is an American actor and director. The recipient of several accolades, including two Golden Globe Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a nomination for a Tony Award, she was named the "Queen of P ...

as Grace Winter *

Sam Shepard Samuel Shepard Rogers III (November 5, 1943 – July 27, 2017) was an American playwright, actor, director, screenwriter, and author whose career spanned half a century. He wrote 58 plays as well as several books of short stories, essays, ...

as Sheriff Morris *

Dianne Wiest Dianne Evelyn Wiest (; born March 28, 1948) is an American actress. She has won two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress for 1986's ''Hannah and Her Sisters'' and 1994's '' Bullets Over Broadway'' (both directed by Woody Allen), one Gold ...

as Penny Alexander * Ayelet Zurer as Carmen * Jay Ali as Sam

Reception

''Darling Companion'' received mostly negative reviews from critics and was a box-office flop.

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

gives it a score of 21% based on 89 reviews, with an average rating of 4.46/10.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

wrote "It is depressing to reflect on the wealth of talent that conspired to make this inert and listless movie."

References

External links

* * * 2012 films Films directed by Lawrence Kasdan Films shot in Utah American independent films Sony Pictures Classics films Films scored by James Newton Howard 2012 drama films American drama films 2012 independent films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films Films with screenplays by Lawrence Kasdan Films about dogs Films produced by Lawrence Kasdan English-language independent films {{2010s-US-film-stub