Darling Companion

Ends tonight, June 14. The key plot points are a fading marriage and a lost dog, but plot points don’t really matter all that much in this good-natured ramble, a bunch of whimsical little anecdotes fueling what amounts to a mildly amusing comedy of manners set among mostly middle-aged suburban types. Beth Winter (Diane Keaton) is a feisty grandmother who feels somewhat neglected by her husband, Joseph (Kevin Kline), an all-business surgeon. On impulse, she adopts a stray dog, names it “Freeway,” and becomes distraught when Joseph loses Freeway while walking him in the woods. The subsequent search for Freeway brings a host of friends and relatives into play—Joseph’s sister, Penny (Dianne Wiest), and her new boyfriend, semi-retired businessman Russell (Richard Jenkins) and son Bryan (Mark Duplass), who is also a doctor; Carmen (Aylet Zurer) who is the gypsy caretaker of the Winters’ summer cabin; and a veterinarian named Sam Bhoola (Jay Ali) who tends to Freeway and marries the Winters’ daughter, Grace (Elisabeth Moss). It has fewer dramatic pretensions than The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, but the basic appeal is much the same—a mostly irresistible cast playing an agreeably flaky set of characters. Pageant Theatre. Rated PG-13.