Review: Marley and Me
How many of you have owned a dog? How about a highly energetic yellow lab?
Marley and Me is a moving movie about a man and his dog, based on the best selling book by the same name. John Grogan wrote the book as an autobiography of his time with his dog and his family through the 13 years that Marley was alive.
Marley was basically rejected on the dog farm that he was bought from. While his brothers and sisters went for close to 300 dollars, Marley went for 200 dollars. The movie does not explain the reason why, but it could be because Marley is a troublemaker of a dog. Throughout the story he eats practically everything and is untrainable.
Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston do a great job in this film. They actually make a nice married couple. I guess it is a good thing she isn’t dating Owen’s buddy from Wedding Crashers anymore… When they get married they are in Michigan and they then vow to move to a warmer climate and choose southern Florida where they each get jobs as reporters. Owen, as John, is encouraged by one of his college buddies that works at the same paper to get his wife a dog to slow the desire for having a child. This is when they go and choose Marley.
The first night Marley is home, John’s wife is gone on a trip for her paper, reporting on a big trial. So John gets to take care of the dog all by himself. And the dog destroys everything!!!! When he leaves the dog in the garage for the night, it won’t stop whining so he brings it inside. In the morning he wakes up to feather’s floating in the air. To make matters worse, when he leaves the dog in the garage the next day to pick up his wife, the dog destroys everything again. The possessed pup even manages to chew holes in the drywall!
From there things around the house get crazy. Marley only gets bigger, and with bigger size comes more terror. At work, things improve for John. He is offered the opportunity to take over a column rather than reporting on cats in trees and methane leaks at the local garbage dump. Even though he is not excited about the opportunity to be a columnist, he takes the spot. When faced with the trouble of trying to come up with a few columns a week, he decides to write about his family fun with the dog. Marley is the perfect dog to write about and entertain people. Including such things as the interesting colors of his poop after eating mangoes and eating an expensive necklace that John gives his wife after conception of their first son.
After a miscarriage John and his wife go on to have three kids. Marley, at least in the movie, seems a lot more tame with the children when they are first born, but over time he becomes just as crazy with them as with the parents.
Before the first son is born, Marley comes to the bedside before the first contraction. It’s incredibly interesting that there are so many cases of animals being able to recognize things about humans before even we do.
This movie is incredibly well filmed, and with the music, it is actually is a tearjerker, especially near the end. By tearjerker I will admit that I actually cried during the movie. There are numerous laughs, such as the one shown often in previews with Marley walking outside of the car as they go down the highway.
I cannot think of any negative aspects to this movie. My girlfriend and I, after realizing it was our first movie date in the 7 months we have been dating, cannot stop talking about how amazing and moving the movie is.
I highly recommend the movie, and if the book is as good as the movie promises, then I hope someone can send me a copy.
Time: 120 min
Rating: PG
My Rating: 4.5 out of 5
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!
