Directed by Lawrence Kasdan. Starring Diane Keaton and Kevin Kline. Rated PG. Opens Friday, May 4, at the Fifth Avenue Cinemas

As a Hollywood insider, Lawrence Kasdan has an unusually strong track record, having written Raiders of the Lost Ark and several Star Wars episodes as well as directing his own scripts for Silverado and The Accidental Tourist. He’s best known, though, for his most personal expressions, The Big Chill (1983) and Grand Canyon (1991), and this generational cycle ends here, not with a bang but with a woof and a couple of whimpers.

In that famous first effort, fairly recent college grads lost their youth, and a dear friend, but found a modicum of emotional wisdom. Next up, they were careerists who found an abandoned baby, lost it, and discovered bonds with people outside their tribe. Here, the grey-haired former idealists encounter an injured dog and just generally lose it.

Although the new film (written with wife Meg Kasdan) nominally rests on the reliable talents of Diane Keaton as Beth, a woman suffering from empty-nest syndrome, more emphasis is placed on Kevin Kline—the director’s usual alter ego—as Joseph, a narcissistic surgeon. When Beth and her younger daughter (Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss) spot a shivering mutt on a wintry road, they take it home, but the daughter then marries an impossibly handsome veterinarian (Jay Ali), leaving self-absorbed mom—who seems to have no real interests of her own—with the dog.

When the animal wanders off during a family vacation in the Colorado Rockies, Beth enlists the help of Joseph’s sister (Dianne Wiest), plus the sister’s new beau (Richard Jenkins) and her unhappy son (Mark Duplass), to help in the search, resulting in much blandly amusing folderol in the woods. There’s also aid from a cranky sheriff (Sam Shepard) and a Romany woman with “special” powers. She’s played by Israel’s gorgeous Ayelet Zurer, who is forced to say lines like: “My people have a saying,” while the entitled class chuckles smugly. Well, my people have a saying, too: “This movie sucks!”

Watch the trailer for Darling Companion.