Why so much hype?

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

The movie starts off promising with an A list cast and quite cute dialog. Diane Keaton and Elizabeth Moss play mother and daughter who rescue a dog off a freeway. This leads to romance and a wedding for with between daughter and the vet at the family Colorado country home. Kevin Kline plays Diane's doctor husband who loses the dog in the woods soon after and then the extended family including a sister played by Diane Wiest and her boyfriend and her son.It all gets annoying when they spend days and get injured looking for the dog. Diane's character seems insanely attached to the dog for no real reason risking her and her husband's life and getting him injured.Starts off with Woody Allen potential and ends in just a pile of doggie doo.Don't waste your time. It deserved to flop.

Slow story, whiny characters, irritating boomer reactions, weirdo gypsy, and rednecks. I started to read the in-flight magazine instead. The beginning is slow and when you hope for more momentum, it starts to get annoying with petty bickering over obvious topics. The attempt at humor showing displaced urban boomers as completely inept in the great outdoors is hard to watch. It further deteriorated to the point where I found myself thinking what the !?! is this and unplugged the headphones. I enjoyed silence for the rest of the 3 hour flight. I wish that I had the Harbor Freight tool catalog that rubitony had. Menopause Melodrama gets my vote for title.I will say that Freeway the dog did a great job. He was right on cue and did not overact.

I know what you're thinking, do we really need another must-love-dogs romantic comedy? Thankfully, contrary to marketing attempts, "Darling Companion" is not a romantic comedy. It's more like an outdoor adventure, relationship dramedy, mystery. Unfortunately, it did start as if it was a romantic comedy. Mother and daughter were annoyingly commiserating on the problems of finding a good man. Then they found a dog and met a cute doctor.I was squirming in my seat faster than they could say "I do." But then something funny happened on the way to the wedding. The boring romantic comedy angle was already wrapped up and they dropped the beleaguered jokes comparing man to dog. And then the film became a fairly simple but enjoyable treatise on the relationships and world views of a handful of family members and close friends.To me, the movie starts when Beth (Diane Keaton)'s dog goes missing. Her husband, Joseph (Kevin Kline), lost it, but he doesn't care. He only likes his money and telling people that he's a doctor. But his practice is just going to have to wait because she's not going home until they find Freeway (the beautiful Collie-mix Kasey). She is helped by Carmen, an exotic sex-goddess who freely admits that she's a psychic gypsy blessed with receiving images of the lost dog. Nephew Brian (Mark Duplass) likes Carmen; he does not like his future step-father Russell (Richard Jenkins). Russell pretty much likes everyone and everything. Joseph doesn't like the dog and he especially doesn't like alleged gypsy psychics leading his family on wild goose chases.The older members of the audience were laughing first, but eventually a little bit of humour in the form of funny lines came through. Kevin Kline was hilarious as the irritable elitist insulting hippie ideals and alleged gypsy psychics. The dialogue was quick, astute and savvy in navigating all the characters towards happiness in their relationships.If you can equate the search for the missing dog as a mystery, then it would be worth comparing this film to Woody Allen's "Manhattan Murder Mystery" (1993). A delightful discussion on relationships set to a mystery plot. It doesn't hurt that the cast includes a couple of Allen regulars (Keaton and Dianne Wiest).It takes awhile to realize that this is not a dull romantic comedy, but if you're looking for a mature, heart-warming relationship dramedy, "Darling Companion" eventually finds its way.

With a cast like this, how can you go wrong??? Getting involved with all of these relationships was enough to make me like this film but with Keaton and Kline doing what they do best, this was an enjoyable and delightful experience. With four Academy Award winners taking on the leads, not only do you get a great performance, but who doesn't like cute little dog that sends all of the characters out on a hunt to find the lost pet. Okay, it doesn't have any gun shots, muggings or superpowers flying though the air, but it sill have me entertained for an hour and a half. We all get a chance to see horror films, thriller stories and action movies, but you don't get a chance to see a film like this very often. A must-see for anyone who has a heart.