Review: Marley and Me – bring the tissues
December 25th, 2008 at 10:47 am by Laff at the Movies under Entertainment
You’ve probably heard the phrase “you’ll laugh, you’ll cry”… well, in the case of Marley & Me, its totally true!
This suprisingly touching movie might not be what you think from the previews – it is not a feel good cheery Christmas flick - this is a movie that relentlessly goes after your emotions to get you to cry, anyone who’s had a pet will be touched and moved, no matter how much you fight it, you’ll get teary eyed.
“Marley & Me”
(2008) (rated: PG for thematic material, some suggestive content and language) (2 hrs)
Starring: Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston, Eric Dane, Kathleen Turner, Alan Arkin, Nathan Gamble
Director: David Frankel
Genre: Romance/Drama/Comedy
The Plot: A family learns important life lessons from their adorable, but naughty and neurotic dog.
MY TAKE (minor spoilers): This movie centers around a couple through the years as Marley grows up and the couple John (Wilson) and Jen (Aniston) has three kids that become very close with Marley.
But Marley isn’t a great dog… several times in the movie he’s referred to as “the world’s worst dog”.
In the beginning, the story is set in “southern Michigan” as John and Jen get married on a snowy day, John was working at the Kalamazoo Gazette after going to college at Western Michigan University.
The couple moves to Florida where both get new jobs at different papers, Jen the more successful of the two as John ends up writing police blotter before switching to a columnist.
The story of Marley ruining everything becomes the central theme of his columns. The title of “world’s worst dog” is helped by a scene where Marley tackles a rough looking Kathleen Turner as the obedience school instructor. Marley also fits the bill when a housesitter says ”Marley is not a dog, he’s evil with a dog face that’s humping my leg and peeing on your carpet”.
Marley & Me is all about a couple getting through the struggles of life as John and Jen have three kids and move two more times to Boca and then to Philadelphia, all with Marley in tow, but as the family gets bigger Marley’s role gets smaller and the focus of John and Jen turn to their kids and John’s job.
The movie is charming and emotional – intricately weaving a web for the audience to fall in love with Marley the dog despite his issues, so you end up loving him especially as he gets older and is less of a troublemaker.
Aniston and Wilson have good chemistry as the couple, and while Wilson sort of plays this role like all his other comical/ slightly awkward roles, Aniston seems to pull a little more serious acting into this role, much like her turn in The Good Girl (2002).
Alan Arkin plays the editor of John’s newspaper in Florida, he’s a solid addition to the cast and puts in a good turn in the mentor role.
One of the movie’s flaws other than Owen’s traditional acting style is that we see about a 12 year span in this movie… Marley gets older with different dogs playing the title role, the kids get older with different child actors, but John and Jen don’t (they even celebrate his 40th birthday)… and there’s not even an obvious attempt to make them look older.
Also, Marley & Me overtly attacks your emotions and doesn’t let up, taking a turn from the charming and adorable to the surprisingly emotional.
THE BOTTOM LINE: If you’ve ever had a pet… you’re done… you’ll shed a tear during Marley & Me… I give it 7.5 out of 10… as it embraces and celebrates the unconditional love only a pet can give.
So what did you think? Please post a comment!
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“…” poster courtesy
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Tags: Alan Arkin, dog, Eric Dane, Jennifer Aniston, Kathleen Turner, Laff at the Movies, Marley & Me, Marley and Me, movie, Nathan Gamble, Owen Wilson, pet, review, Western Michigan University
Aaron Lafferty covers the film industry. Favorite movies include Star Wars, Indiana Jones, The Matrix, Clear and Present Danger, Tombstone, Rounders, Enemy of the State, Rear W...
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The book Marley and me will have you laughing and crying to the end! If only the movie followed the book, It would have been a blockbuster. As it stands it is a GREAT disappointment. Once you have seen Jennifer Anniston in “Friends” you will have seen the extent of her acting abilities her “cute” “girl next door” is All she seems capable of doing.All her movies seem to be remakes of the same.
The deviation from the book story combined with the choice of actress are a disgrace and disfavor to John Groggens writing ability and the memory of Marley!
I hope there is a remake made, which follows the book where despite Johns “starring” role as Marley’s owner he becomes more of a “supporting” as well as his wife to an even lesser extend. Perhaps an Actress who can act would be able to play the supporting role and make the movie story about what it was, The story of a very special relationship between a man and his adorable misbehaving dog. The bond between canine and man!
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I don’t know how good it was, but it was selling out like crazy tonight at Celebration! South!
Its not a bad movie Bill, I just wanted to make sure people knew what they were going to go see wasn’t the cheery fun romantic comedy feel-good movie that some of the trailers/previews make it out to be, I know they are advertising to get a wider audience, but if some family is going to pick one movie to go see this weekend, I would hate for them to spend their money on something they thought was going to leave them feeling all happy and merry about. Marley & Me starts out that way, but then its very sad. Its a pretty good movie, just sad.
Has anyone seen The Spirit yet? Most of the reviews I’ve seen say it’s pretty awful. I guess it doesn’t matter because the fanboys are going to come out in force no matter what the critics say.
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judging by the box office, it looks like Jennifer Aniston is giving Brad Pitt a run for his money…
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Great and accountable actors that I assumed would make a funny film and there were some chuckling moments, but to be honest I thought that owen Wilson and Jen Aniston seemed bored. It was as if they had too much to drink the night before filming and put out a lackluster performance.
I hyped Marley & Me on Everhype.com and gave it 94% which I think is fairly accurate.
http://www.everhype.com/hyper/mikeborgia?X=M894
If you get on there rate me a 5 and request friendship.
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Not to long ago just the other day I went to go see the movie “Marley and Me”. The movie is like a comedy with a little bit of romance in it. Marley is a sweet dog even though he gets into a lot of trouble and nearly closes down the beach for using the bathroom in the water. I just wanted to laugh my heart out when I saw that. Anyways on with the movie. So John and Jen decide that they want a baby and end up having one, which was a boy. Later on they had another one and it was a boy to. So John decides to tell Jen to lay off the thing about having babies. But guess what? They have a girl. So later on………. About a few months later. The family all moves away into this big house. They start to enjoy it the first few months. They are happy and glad as can be, but they don’t know what is ahead of ‘em. Marley gets sick and John finds him lying out in the rain and can’t get up so he picks him up and takes him to the vet. The vet says that he is sick and there may not be a possible chance of him lasting through surgery, so they risk it and Marley survives. A few days later it happens again and he takes her to the vet and the doctors say that they cannot do anything, so John makes the hard decision of putting him to sleep. Wow this is hard to hold in but I cried at the end. This movie is a excellent film and I would defiantly rate it a 9.5! So go to the movies and see it!!!!
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As an urban dog owner we often found ourselves entangled with or pre-occupied by other “important” things in life ….. work, family, finances, sports, etc. And while we were attending to such “pressing matters”, our pets or man’s best friends, would be wasting their short lives away at home. All these time the only thing they really yearned for was our attention, love and care, or even just an affectionate pat on their heads. But, hey, what’s the the hurry? My dog will still be around by the time everything has been taken care of, right?
I watched Marley & Me the other day with my wife and a few friends. We all have dogs of our own (mine is a 6-year-old black schnauzer girl)and no one did not have teary eyes after the show. The movie, despite all the flaws, reminded us how precious and cherishable the relationships between our dogs and us were….. and how much we have ignored their emotional needs. The first thing I did when I got home after the movie was gave my dog the longest hug I could remember (while she was licking her teary-eyed master’s ear). She was so estatic that, believe it or not, she even yelped while sleeping (must be have a really exciting dream).
Marley & Me ….. a good movie with an excellent message. Highly recommended.
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