“Darling Companion” is a movie that Woody Allen might have made if he had (a) no gift for narrative charm, (b) no knack for tangy banter, and (c) no sense of humor.
The cast features a couple of actors who are closely identified with Allen’s films, and the characters, like so many in the Woodman’s oeuvre, are career white people of the well-to-do variety. But would Allen have assembled these folks at a vacation home in the sun-blighted, fresh-air-infested Rocky Mountains? I think not. And would he have sent them stumbling around in the local woodlands for long stretches of screen time? Again, unlikely.
And then there’s the dog. The dog is the hub around which the movie’s shaggy plot revolves. He has been rescued from roadside homelessness by suburban matron Beth Winter (Diane Keaton, giving the film’s peppiest performance) and her daughter Grace (Elisabeth Moss, of Mad Men). They name the mutt “Freeway” and take it home–where it receives a frosty reception from Beth’s husband Joseph (Kevin Kline, an oddly wispy presence throughout). Joseph has been looking forward to an uncluttered life after Grace finds a man to marry and finally moves out of the house; a canine interloper is not part of his plan.
Read the full review at Reason.com
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