Director Lawrence Kasdan’s Darling Companion has been set as the opening night film for the 27th Santa Barbara International Film Festival taking place January 26 – February 5, 2012. Announcing the film’s premiere, SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling stated, “We are incredibly privileged to have the world premiere of a Lawrence Kasdan film. The highly anticipated Darling Companion is a fantastic film to kick off the festival.”
The cast of Darling Companion includes Diane Keaton, Kevin Kline, Dianne Wiest, Richard Jenkins, Sam Shepard, Mark Duplass, Elisabeth Moss, and Ayelet Zurer.
In addition to the premiere of Darling Companion, the SBIFF will feature a Lawrence Kasdan Retrospective with a Q&A and screenings of Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), and Grand Canyon (1991).
The Plot: In Darling Companion, Beth (Diane Keaton) saves a bedraggled lost dog from the side of the freeway on a wintry day in Denver. Struggling with her distracted, self-involved husband Joseph (Kevin Kline) and an empty nest at home, Beth forms a special bond with the rescued animal. When Joseph loses the dog after a wedding at their vacation home in the Rockies, the distraught Beth enlists the help of the few remaining guests and a mysterious young woman (Ayelet Zurer) in a frantic search.
Each member of the search party is affected by the adventure, which takes them in unexpected directions – comic, harrowing, and sometimes deeply emotional.
