“The Big Chill” director Lawrence Kasdan clearly understands the complicated relationships between two-legged creatures. But the writer-director-producer says he never really “got” the intimate connection that people have with their family pets.
That was until seven years ago on Easter Sunday, when Kasdan and his wife, Meg, adopted a cattle dog mix named Mac from the South Central L.A. shelter.
“We adopted this dog, and something was completely different,” Kasdan said last week at a screening of “Darling Companion,” which opened last night in New York and Los Angeles.
“You know how you go across the line and the whole world is divided between people who understand this and people who don’t?”
Sound familiar?
The couple’s feelings for Mac, now 14, only intensified a year-and-a-half later when the pup went missing in the Colorado Rockies while they were hiking with friends.
Mac got spooked when a mountain biker came down behind them and he bolted.
After an agonizing three-week search, a stranger who had spotted their missing-dog flyer found Mac by the river.
The Kasdans search for Mac inspired the husband-and-wife team to recreate the harrowing experience in “Darling Companion.” The star-studded film depicts not only the couple’s deep connection to their beloved dog, but the canine’s ability to teach the family about true love.
Kasdan cast Kevin Kline to play Joseph, a self-absorbed spinal surgeon whose wife, Beth (Diane Keaton), is facing an empty nest and an increasingly distant — and crotchety — husband.
He whines when Beth brings home a dog she found lying on the side of the freeway. But the scrawny and mangy mutt — aptly named Freeway — helps to lift her spirits and fill the increasingly dark and empty hole in her heart.
In Beth’s mind, Freeway’s not going anywhere — until he does.
After the dog gets lost while walking off leash with Joseph — who is busy chatting on his cell phone — well, things change.
When it came to casting the film’s critters, the Kasdans stayed true to their love for the underdogs. The role of Freeway was played by two talented rescued dogs found at Good Dog Animals, an agency run on a California ranch by professional dog trainers Guin Dill and Steven Solomon.
All of the money made by its dogs, cats, snakes, birds, among others — mostly all rescues — goes back to maintaining the animals and the ranch, Guin said.
Lead actor Kasey, a collie shepherd mix, was plucked from a Las Vegas shelter after being found in the desert tied to a tree with a rope embedded into his neck.
Kasey’s understudy, Kuma, an Australian cattle dog mix, was rescued from an L.A. shelter. The cream-colored actor required three hours of hair and makeup to be dyed to match the tricolored lead.
Meanwhile, when asked how it’s possible that we can love our four-legged friends perhaps more than our human companions — or even ourselves — Kasdan replied, “They’re so pure, the unconditional love, they’re so present. They never say, ‘I had something else to do.’ ”
