DARLING COMPANION DVD (2012)

SYNOPSIS: Beth saves a bedraggled lost dog from the side of the freeway on a wintry day in Denver. Struggling with her distracted, self-involved husband Joseph and an empty nest at home, Beth forms a special bond with the rescued animal. When Joseph loses the dog after a wedding at their vacation home in the Rockies, the distraught Beth enlists the help of the few remaining guests and a mysterious young woman in a frantic search. Each member of the search party is affected by the adventure, which takes them in unexpected directions – comic, harrowing, sometimes deeply emotional and ultimately towards love.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Nine years is a long time to be away, but yes it has been that long since Lawrence Kasdan made a movie. Kasdan who? Well, for the uninitiated, he is the writer of such blockbusters as ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ and ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ as well as acclaimed ensemble dramas like ‘The Big Chill’ and ‘Grand Canyon’. ‘Darling Companion’ marks his first film in nine years, but this family-friendly drama is as tepid a comeback as can be, offering little humour or poignancy to a well-worn premise of a dog that helps bring an emotionally distant family closer to one another.

Assuming both writing and directing duties on the film, the former of which he shares credit for with his wife Meg, Kasdan relates the marriage woes of Joseph and Beth Winter, a couple coming into their twilight years and growing ever further from each other. Whereas Beth (Diane Keaton) is faced with the loneliness arising from an empty nest syndrome, Joseph (Kevin Kline) compensates by throwing himself more and more into his day to day work as a spinal surgeon.

Beth finds an unlikely companion in the form of an injured, mangy mutt she rescues while driving along the freeway one day. That rescue also proves serendipitious for her daughter Grace (Elizabeth Moss), who gets to know an affable Indian veterinarian who nurses Freeway to health and then gets married to him a year later. Grace's wedding takes place at Beth's vacation home in the mountainous countryside, but that very weekend takes an unexpectedly trying turn when Freeway goes missing during one of his walks out in the woods with Joseph.

The hunt for Freeway that ensues will make Beth confront her disappointments with Joseph, as both seek to address the problems in their marriage which they have consistently ignored. But besides the elderly Winters, there are also other members in the family who will have to do some soul-searching, including Joseph’s sister Penny (Dianne Wiest), her boyfriend Russell (Richard Jenkins) and Penny’s son Bryan (Mark Duplass). Everyone is none too pleased with someone else, and it isn’t long before these tensions come to the fore.

None of which is particularly engaging unfortunately – not only are the characters not compelling enough, the scenarios they find themselves in are just too vapid for us to care. Instead, there is a feeling of geniality in the air, which isn’t bad in itself, but makes for dull cinema. As the script meanders, so does the direction, and Lawrence Kasdan cannot quite muster enough momentum in the film to keep your attention from drifting away. Neither do the cast of veterans for that matter – and even the dependable Keaton and Kline look as if they were sleepwalking through the movie.

We don’t blame them really. It’s hard to keep awake in a movie that is as dull as this, which belongs at best to the Hallmark channel. Then again, this was supposed to mark Kasdan’s return to filmmaking, and from what we see, it is nothing less than a letdown. With an aimless script as well as lacklustre direction, this drama is but a poor shade of what Kasdan used to be capable of in the past, and you’re better off finding a more a real-life human companion to spend the time with than this onscreen canine. 

AUDIO/VISUAL:

The Dolby Digital 2.0 audio will do just fine for this talky movie. Visuals are clean and crisp.

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Gabriel Chong