Marley and Me – 2008’s lovable pet family movie
Marley and Me – 2008’s lovable pet family movie
Rated: PG Time: 2:03
Stars: Alan Arkin, Jennifer Aniston, Owen Wilson and others
Final Grade: B-
Summary: Right after getting married on the night of a blizzard, new journalists John Grogan(Wilson) and his wife Jenny(Aniston) vow that they’re going to leave the snow for a warmer climate and move to Miami to stake their claims to life, career and happiness. John is a reporter and Jenny is a features writer for the local papers…and clearly she’s doing a better job than he is which kind of leads to a bit of competitive concern.
In a hope to deter his wife’s clock from ticking too loud John decides to get her a puppy. It’s a cute, cuddly, clumsy eating machine with four paws. This dog breaks every rule in the book, eats everything in sight and frankly is about as ill-mannered and uncontrolled as it gets. But this loveable mutt soon is in everyone’s heart, not to mention couch, pillows, swimming pool, stadium, and every other bit of mischief he can find.
John’s career path is changing a bit. He’s gone from being a regular reporter to being a regular columnist for the paper, and as a columnist, he’s a big hit. But, he’s a reporter at heart. However, his readers love his stuff and it’s regularly peppered with the latest adventures of Marley, much to his audience’s delight.
As their lives and careers expand so does Jenny’s biological clock. In time they have kids and Marley becomes an integrated, yet still sans manners, member of their family. It’s interesting that they would want to control their kids, yet chose not to control the mutt. I guess it’s in the script. And, like with any family, the family pet becomes an integral part of the kids’ lives. This one is no exception so when Marley gets sick, it’s no surprise that it’s a family event.
Time moves on as do the lives of the family members. The kids grow, the dog get’s older, everything seems to age in this movie except Jennifer Aniston. I think she has the same hair length, style and color throughout the movie. But then, nobody in the theater was complaining about that as the family continues through the normal problems, family and marriage fights, some serious post partum depression and serious bitchiness from Jenny when life and kids becomes a full plate to handle. This clearly has John kind of confused as she had been the one to want to leave her work to be with the kids. Now she’s demanding a lot of him in addition to his work schedule. So, Marley gets a small vacation at a friends while the home front returns to normalcy. Something had to give so it was Marley, which Jennifer later regrets while consoling Marley.
A career change takes John, Jennifer and family from Florida to Philadelphia. The kids are in elementary school and Marley is starting to take longer to climb the stairs and chase sticks. He’s an old dog by now and in the fall of his life and true to life’s cycle his time isn’t far away. The sniffles, coughs and blowing noses were very evident of the tear blurred eyes in our theater as finally Marley is put to sleep. This dying scene and the family’s service for him the next morning is a major tear jerker as the movie ends and fades to credits. If your family has recently lost a pet or you have kids that are sensitive in this area, this movie is NOT for you at this time. It’s got a really power punched intense ending that may be a bit much for small or sensitive kids.
If there’s ever to be a movie on how not to train a dog, this is to be kept under serious consideration for the top spot. Many times during this movie I was ready to scream something like “set that mutt down and smack his butt with a BIG “NO!”. Geezuz, if my mutt did that kind of damage to our house, we’d have a serious “come to Jesus” meeting! But it’s all in the script and the script and movie are a lot of laughs and fun.
Two of the things I use to gauge a movie success are the size of the audience and how they respond to the movie both during and after. Even given that it was Christmas night, if this evening’s audience is any indicator of this movie’s response, it’s going to one of the hits of the season. This is a fun family safe movie with lots of laughs and one that family will enjoy. Don’t be surprised if your kids give the family pet an extra hug when they come home. That’s a good sign.
I’m Don Rima, and that’s the way I saw it, From Where I Stand.
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