Special Movie Review - Marley & Me

Marley & Me


Many times, family-oriented movies tend to cater to just that audience, rather than having some sort of appealing quality to others older than the 12 and under age group. Going into Marley & Me, I felt like the film might have that same goal in mind - to create a movie that would harness a loving and caring, and ultimately lame, atmosphere. Instead, I found Marley & Me appealing to a broader age group than just that tween-and-under minority crowd.


Director David Frankel gives the audience a chance to recall their own past experiences with pets throughout the film, with most of it being the good memories of thrilling or emotional situations. Owen Wilson plays John Grogan, who is celebrating a new marriage to Jennifer (Jennifer Aniston). John and Jennifer move to sunny Florida, where John soon lands a job writing for a local paper. He struggles to find his place at the office while Jennifer succeeds, and after talking with his friend Sebastian (Eric Dane), decides that the next likely life choice that Jennifer would have in mind is having a baby. John's reaction isn't exactly thrilled, and so he decides to get Jennifer a puppy so she can keep her mind off of a child and have something else to take care of instead.

From here, the movie proceeds predictably enough. John changes his job as reporter to an amazing columnist who writes about the worst dog ever, the puppy Marley. Jennifer and John decide it's time to have a baby, even with the antics of the dog, and end up having a couple they didn't exactly plan on. John gets a job that requires him to move, and the family moves into a bigger home. Marley becomes older, and, inevitably, passes away.


What is most surprising about Marley & Me is the fact that the film has the ability to hold the audience's attention - to even be engaging - with a plot that has been done a number of times before and is, in fact, being lived out every day. In essence, the fact that the story in the movie is real, and is quite common in daily life, grabs the attention of the viewer. Owning a pet is a tradition in most family households, whether it be a cat, dog, or snake, and so Marley's presence is familiar territory for the audience, almost a rite of passage from single to married.


Both Wilson and Aniston are believable as lovers and as people in general. Their struggles are real and make sense; Aniston's first failure at pregnancy seems especially touching considering the fact that Marley has the ability to help Aniston's character cope with the loss. Marley & Me showcases a fact that has always been around but not put so poignantly as in the film - dogs, and collectively pets in general, are with us in all of our memories. It is impossible to fully seperate certain parts of our lives from our pets, because they naturally become an important love, a coping strategy for the bad times and a celebration for the happiness that they bring in the good times. The ending of the film accentuates this well, as **SPOILER WARNING** Marley is being put down, by conjoining the sadness of the moment with the happy memories that have come throughout the movie. On the one hand, we are extremely saddened by the fact that Marley is passing on, as we have come to know him so well throughout the movie. Yet the montage of clips that sum up John and Jennifer's lives with Marley are a celebration of the happiness and love that Marley had in his life. The fact that the movie goes into so much detail of Marley being put down is not exploitative or only there for the sake of getting the audience to cry; instead, it would be an insult not to give a moment to pay respects to a dog that we have devoted two hours of our lives to watching. **END SPOILERS**


The moving part of this ending, then, comes from both our involvement in Marley's life, but moreso from our own experiences with pets and death. In the end, we see ourselves in John and Jennifer's shoes, making the experience that much more sad. And yet we celebrate our own pets' lives that we have lost, for Marley & Me brings those memories back.

As for the dogs, they are beautiful and consistent in behavior. Wilson and Aniston do seem to have a sort of connection with the dog, displaying love and frustration during different times. Years pass quickly, although Wilson and Aniston barely seem older than when they first began their family.


At the end of the movie, the audience will be sobbing but still happy that they went through the experience. The film is a touching tale of the melding of lives, both human and dog, and how they soon become inseperable, as if the dog is a human being as well. Marley & Me makes a great point in its concluding monologue - dogs are better than humans, because their love is unconditional. They don't get pissed off if you're pissed off, they don't care if you smell bad or if you've got a giant pimple on your nose. They could care less if you've got foot fungus or a bad cold. All they want is your love, and to love you back - what more could you ask for? Marley & Me is a loving dog, for sure, but a difficult one to come back to. Intensity does play a part in its story, but it is an intensity with which one must handle in life - and it will be hard to hold back the tears.

Marley & Me on Rotten Tomatoes