A tearjerker of a movie
”
Marley and Me
”
starring Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston
Anyone who has ever had a pet will be tempted to see
”
Marley and Me
”
based on the previews that show Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston
trying to tame the loveable, out-of-control retriever. But be
warned, the movie trailers are deceiving, as anyone who has read
the book by John Grogan already surely knows.
A tearjerker of a movie
“Marley and Me” starring Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston
Anyone who has ever had a pet will be tempted to see “Marley and Me” based on the previews that show Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston trying to tame the loveable, out-of-control retriever. But be warned, the movie trailers are deceiving, as anyone who has read the book by John Grogan already surely knows.
The book is based on columnist John Grogan’s life with his wife Jennifer and their wild dog Marley. As in real life, there is love, there are losses and pets don’t outlive their owners. If you dare to see this movie, know going in that Marley doesn’t make it past the closing credits.
The movie does have its funny moments, however. Anyone who has owned a dog will get a kick out of the first half of the movie, and I certainly could relate. My family has a dog and her name is Cassidy. Until she moved in almost two years ago, I never thought I was a dog person.
It annoyed me when I visited other people’s houses and the dogs slobbered on me or jumped up on me. But Cassidy changed all that when she learned how to give kisses on command and jump through a hula-hoop. Unlike the cats in our lives, who just look at us when we get home from work and demand a constant spread of fresh cat food, Cassidy is equally overjoyed to see us whether we have just returned from a four-day vacation, or if we’ve just popped out to the store for half an hour.
We saw plenty of Cassidy, a dog who was not allowed to go puppy classes because of her bad behavior around other dogs, in Marley.
In the movie, John (Owen Wilson) and Jenny (Jennifer Aniston) move from the Great Lakes area to Florida, where they both get jobs working as reporters. It’s all on Jenny’s list – get married, move somewhere warm, buy a house, have children.
But John wants a chance to focus on his career and slow down on having children. His friend Sebastian (Eric Dane), a fellow reporter, suggests he get a dog for his wife to stave off her ticking biological clock for a few more years. The two pick out a rambunctious yellow Labrador retriever who is on “clearance” for $200.
When they first get the puppy home, Jenny forgives his bad behavior during a thunderstorm and at first his unruly actions just make the couple laugh. But eventually, they realize the dog needs some training.
Unfortunately, the trainer Ms. Kornblut (Kathleen Turner) quickly decides Marley is not trainable and the couple is left to deal with Marley on their own. That means lots of shouting, “Marley don’t” when the dog gets into things he shouldn’t and it also means Marley can never be off leash at the dog beach because of his unpredictable behavior.
As Marley gets older, and more badly behaved, John finds himself pushed by his editor Arnie Klein (Alan Arkin) to take on a bi-weekly column. It’s a dream job for most news reporters since they get to come up with their own topics and they can insert themselves into the copy, but John sees himself as a news reporter so he takes the job reluctantly.
Arnie finds the column is a natural fit for John, and soon more and more of the columns are about his life at home with Marley and Jenny. Eventually, John decides he is ready to have a child and he and Jenny begin trying for a baby. He is offered a chance to work on a big investigative piece overseas, but then Jenny discovers she is pregnant.
This is around where things start to get a little depressing in the movie, and the dog dying is still an hour off. By the time Jenny is beginning to manage baby number one and writing from home, she discovers she is pregnant with another baby. She will give up her job as a journalist to be a full-time mom and John will take a job as a full-time columnist so he can get a raise, even if it means his dreams of being a star reporter are over.
The movie is not so much about Marley and John as it is about relationships and the way in which they change over time, and the way that what people think they want when they are younger isn’t always what they end up, or what they need. But through it all what Marley wants and needs stays pretty much the same – he just wants their attention and a little bit of love.
