[Editor's Note: Poster Lab is your weekly dose of movie poster dissection, wherein the House examines the pluses, minuses, and in-betweens of the poster design(s) for a buzzworthy film.]

In general, this column isn't designed to verbally tear bad posters in half, but when something as shoddy as the one-sheet for Darling Companion is put on the market, it's pretty hard not to chime in. Almost shockingly unpolished, this blandly conceived fiasco reads like the rushed efforts of a first-day intern, who was tasked to cook up something to be shuffled out the door, and in an over-caffeinated panic, made a sinful hybrid of Lassie, The Devil Wears Prada and Martha Marcy May Marlene. Hell, maybe that leg even belongs to the intern's boss, whose blurry blob of a platform heel recalls those digi-bras used in VH1's "Movies That Rock" broadcast of Showgirls (come on, y'all know which ones I'm talking about).

It's a good thing the intern remembered to include the collie, because this design otherwise reflects next to nothing that's conveyed in the movie's trailer, which promises over-50 ensemble kookiness, not working-woman minimalism. Maybe if that foot were wearing a saddle shoe and slacks, we might at least believe it belongs to lead star Diane Keaton. As is, it implies a tony glamazon who leaves Fido with a sitter. If there's any half-decent design sense to speak of, it's that the woman's leg provides line quality and hugs the dog's left side, thus offering a literal visual of the titular theme of pet-owner closeness. In all likelihood, though, it was probably just that poor intern's way of scaling down the clipping-path duties, which, given the number that was done on the paw, was probably a blessing. Continue Reading »