Darling Companion
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: April 20, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
41
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
18
Negative:
8
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Miami HeraldConnie OgleMay 3, 2012
You don't have to love dogs to enjoy Darling Companion, but it couldn't hurt. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerApr 22, 2012
A pleasant little dawdle and yet another example, in these dog days for cinema, that dogs are a movie's best friend. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 17, 2012
Darling Companion would be instantly forgettable if not for Keaton, who imbues Beth with a sorrow, warmth, wisdom, and rage that feel earned. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMay 10, 2012
It's fun to watch Keaton and Kline together, bickering and (of course) bonding all over again. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigApr 22, 2012
Dog lovers will instantly warm to the handsome stray collie mix, but they may struggle to fully embrace the amiable but toothless adult story surrounding him. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJun 1, 2012
Some summer movies are big, woofing mastiffs. (Think "Battleship.") Others are naughty, nipping lapdogs. ("The Dictator.") Here, what we get is a calm, quiet basset hound. And, for the most part, it's a good dog. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenMay 16, 2012
This new movie is a trifle, a listless excursion into the luxurious problems of rich, white people. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayMay 3, 2012
Dogs and the women who love them form the warm and gooey center of Darling Companion, Lawrence Kasdan's fitfully amusing comedy-drama. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinApr 25, 2012
The tone is mild, the setting is peaceful to the point of sleepiness, and the stakes are incredibly low, even with the heart-tugging central presence of an adorable animal in danger. Read full review
50
New York PostLou LumenickApr 20, 2012
While it's not a disaster like Kasdan's last film, "Dreamcatcher'' (2003), Darling Companion doesn't amount to much more than a fairly painless way for the AARP set to spend an hour and a half watching a movie with stars their own age. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottApr 19, 2012
If you found "Benji the Hunted" unbearably intense or "Marley & Me" a bit too hard-edged, then Darling Companion may be the dog movie for you. On the other hand, if you like to watch cute pooches doing cute stuff on screen, you may be a little disappointed. Read full review
50
TimeMary PolsApr 19, 2012
It has a gentle if unenlightening message, namely that we should all take time off to reconnect - the soundtrack tends to the Bonnie Raitt but the movie seems to subliminally hum "slow down, you move too fast" - and Keaton and Kline have decent chemistry. Read full review
50
MovielineStephanie ZacharekApr 19, 2012
There's too much people and not enough dog in Lawrence Kasdan's Darling Companion, and even if you prefer people to dogs, that's a serious problem. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedApr 17, 2012
The movie is not about the dog. It's about the people who find love, settle their differences, and get their priorities straight while searching for him. Still, when all is said and done, the dog is the only thing you care about in Darling Companion. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinApr 16, 2012
If you can stay awake, you'll see a performance by ­Keaton that is radiant in its simplicity, all ditheriness shaken off. She's still ­peaking - ­someone give her a great role. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenApr 15, 2012
While superbly acted, the dramedy plays out like a tepid "Big Chill" at best. Read full review
50
VarietyLael LoewensteinApr 15, 2012
It meanders about as much as its eponymous pooch. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanApr 14, 2012
Lawrence Kasdan's comedy strikes a note of rib-nudging blah coyness that feels very 1987. Read full review
42
Portland OregonianMarc MohanMay 17, 2012
The whole thing has the feel of a fact-based dinner-table anecdote absurdly puffed up to feature length. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyApr 19, 2012
Like Freeway, the lovable stray dog at the center of this very teary comedy, Darling Companion has lost its way. Even the marquee ensemble anchored by Diane Keaton, Dianne Wiest, Kevin Kline and Richard Jenkins is not enough to rescue this motley mutt of a movie. Read full review
40
SalonAndrew O'HehirApr 19, 2012
The doggie in Darling Companion is a big, warm bundle of puppy love; his owners are lost forever in a big chill. Read full review
40
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonApr 17, 2012
The handsome pooch is also the only appealing aspect of the latest tale of privileged boomer pulse-taking from Lawrence Kasdan. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichApr 17, 2012
The story's treacly all-souls-in-alignment outcome is never in doubt, but as Kasdan dogs go, this is light-years better than Dreamcatcher. Read full review
38
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanMay 24, 2012
The film's filled with inconsequential scenes and supporting characters who add useless atmosphere or by-the-book diversity. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenApr 26, 2012
The film sputters and stalls and winds up behaving like the worst sort of oldster – passing gas and pretending to be deep. Read full review
30
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 26, 2012
Jenkins is a fantastically adaptable talent. It helps that his character here is supposed to be innately likable (by everyone, evidently, but his girlfriend's family), since Jenkins is so likable as an actor. Good thing, because there is little else to like about Darling Companion. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesApr 26, 2012
Initially this struck me as something you'd take your grandmother to see, but by the end it seemed more like something your grandmother would take her grandmother to see. Read full review
30
NPRElla TaylorApr 19, 2012
The movie uses the mutt's disappearance as a frame on which to hang a well-worn package of fatally mild domestic disorder, then resolve it in what feels like real time. Let's just say that the dog gets the best lines. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertApr 25, 2012
It is depressing to reflect on the wealth of talent that conspired to make this inert and listless movie. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierApr 19, 2012
The folksy shenanigans are well-intentioned but frankly interminable, with Kline's wry efficiency the best relief from all the yowling and whining. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineNick SchagerApr 14, 2012
A lost-dog drama so insufferable it makes one wish its human characters would also run off and never return. Read full review
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