I'm going to rate this film higher than most are. I think it's a pretty decent LITTLE film that appeals to a limited audience. Who's in that audience...well, frankly, us older folks. Oh, don't get me wrong. This is not a great film. But it's a decent LITTLE film about mature relationships and marriages and what makes them tick. And by the way, several sites list this as a comedy. It is a drama, not a comedy.One of the highlights of the film is the scenery and photography. Autumn in southwestern Colorado! But, of course, we're not watching it for those reasons. That's just a bonus.Girl meets dog. Boy loses dog. Marriage in a shambles. That's the crux of the story.It's the performances that make the difference. And these are not great performances. But they're kinda real. I'm more sympathetic to the husband than most of our reviewers. He's a surgeon, and I'm getting ready to have surgery in about 10 days. I want my surgeon to be thinking exclusively of me that morning...not worrying about a lost dog. Now that's not to say that the doctor has been a great husband; clearly he takes his marriage for granted. Kevin Kline does fine here, although this is certainly not his best role..by far.This is probably the most different role I've ever seen Diane Keaton in...as the wife of the surgeon...struggling in a somewhat lifeless marriage who rediscovers her love in a rather odd set of circumstances...partially lost in the rain in the woods and resetting her husband's dislocated shoulder.Richard Jenkins is a much underrated actor, probably because he's far from handsome and thus, not the movie-star type. But he fairly consistently turns in fine performances, and while this is not a "great" role, he subtly fine tunes his performance.The rest of the performances are fine, but not notable. Even Diane Weist, who is usually so good, just sort of gets by here in a part that relegates her to a comparatively minor role. The Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer has a somewhat interesting role as a modern-day gypsy.You're not going to walk away from this film saying how great it was. But I think you may enjoy a quiet little movie with some realism in it.

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 of 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 it might have 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 verge 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 too 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 a 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 a 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

I am a dog lover and never miss the chance to watch a good dog movie. I rented this movie thinking my 10 year old daughter and I would sit down and have an enjoyable time together. About 20 minutes into the movie and both my daughter and I were doing something else. She was on the computer and I was reading a Harbor Freight tools flyer that came in. The movie starts slow, stays slow and finishes slow. There are too many characters involved and hard to keep up with who's doing what and why. I only finished the movie to see what the ending was like. I am a glutton for punishment. I should have watched the 10 O'clock news instead. Didn't get my $1.30 worth. (I rented it at Redbox) I was very disappointed with it.

"Lassie, don't come home."Will movies never cease to amaze me? How could the creativity behind the pleasing ensemble film Grand Canyon, Lawrence Kasdan and his wife, Meg, be responsible for the insipid drama, Darling Companion? A lost dog? The hunt curing and binding the principle couples? Please!! Only surgeons, veterinarians, and their wives could have the time and resources to stay at a Colorado lodge to look for a lost dog. Of course, the dog is just the metaphor for the lost romance, to be found, of the couples, mostly Beth (Diane Keaton) and Joseph (Kevin Kline).It's difficult to describe how banal their interaction is, especially since Keaton overacts, flailing her arms at emotional moments, and Kline appears to wish he hadn't made this movie with his lines appropriate for a high school world premier.But then, Sam Shepherd, the world-class playwright, has to endure his thankless role as the curmudgeonly sheriff, and Diane Weist can only showcase her world-class cheekbones. Richard Jenkins as her silly love interest, well, he's had a whole lot better than his comic-relief buffoon.But then the writing Kasdans didn't have to worry about crafting each line since it seems every other line is a scream calling for lost dog, Freeway. When the most conflict you'll get is Joseph's enslavement to his cell, you have an idea that there are no new ideas. I suggest the real conflict is Beth's over dramatizing, which Joseph calls her on.Once again a film relies on the faded glory of its Hollywood royalty to tell a silly tale about older folk. I'm thinking I might enjoy the second edition of The Expendables, whose 65-year-old Sylvester Stallone is a has been, knows it, and makes no pretense about making a warm and fuzzy film.