SMT Weekly Flick by Paul Krismanits
Doggone it!
A dog steals the show from Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston in Marley & Me.
Marley & Me (Rated PG) 123 mins
Sometimes a movie stands by its ability not to relate to everybody, but to relate strongly to a certain group of people. Often times incredibly promising films get lost in trying to appeal to everyone, and in doing so miss the mark in appealing to the core constituency the movie most relates to. This may sometimes help produce more box-office receipts, but usually just results in diluting a film that could have been much more. Thankfully, the recently released true story Marley & Me realized this and played it right; it’s a movie for dog lovers, and there are no signs of shame.
The proof of this may be clearest in the fact that most critics have lambasted our poor pooch. For those who don’t know, most film critics are pretentious big-city folk who look at dog-ownership as something on the level of say… food poisoning. To most of them dogs are foul creatures, which are only good for ruining one’s day. In other words, they don’t get it, they don’t care to get it, and they pretty much look down upon anyone who does. And to be honest, in their own way they are absolutely correct, for Marley & Me really does have very little for anyone who has never owned a dog. Fortunately for Marley, I have, and I have never seen another movie which gets the whole “dog thing” as accurately as this one.
The best part of Marley & Me is its simplicity. It’s the love story of a family and its dog, and it is much truer to form than most anything Hollywood ever gets their hands on. Right away we meet John (Owen Wilson) and Jenny (Jennifer Aniston), newlyweds who are excitedly starting their new life together in a new place with new jobs. Both of them writers, Jenny gets a great gig as a columnist for a big Florida paper, while John is left fighting for a job as a local reporter at a local paper with a quirky editor (the always funny Alan Arkin).
That taken care of, Jenny giddily moves down her list – marriage, check; house, check; jobs, check; – and John knows that the desire for a larger family will soon have Jenny eager to mark off the inevitable next item. But like most men in his position, John isn’t quite ready for the pitter-patter of little feet around the house, so with the help of his philandering best-friend Sebastian he decides to get a dog in hopes of postponing Jenny’s next checkmark. It works, but the result is Marley, a dog that would be anyone’s worst nightmare, except his owner’s. For through every hair-raising misadventure Marley perpetuates through the years, the Grogan’s find themselves loving the dog more. It is this dichotomy which epitomizes so many man-dog relationships, and the way Marley & Me understands this that makes the film so endearing to those who are in the “know”.
As it happens, I am one of those people, and in more ways than one. Not only have I been a dog-lover/owner my entire life, but Marley very closely resembles my family’s dog Bo in both looks (they are both Golden Labradors) and demeanor. So yes, I am biased, but I also know how hard it is to perfectly embody any situation through film, and to see it happen is always a treat.
But don’t be fooled, Marley & Me does not just strike bulls-eye when pertaining to its four-legged star, it also strikes it rich in its realistic depiction of modern day-to-day family life. The Grogan’s (“not Gorgan” John constantly reminds his editor) are a real family, and to their credit Marley’s makers did not try to Hollywood-ize them. This ensures that middle class viewers have a big screen family they can actually relate to, something which is no small feat these days. John and Jenny are just like most couples who are trying to make it all work.
They deal with real disappointments, real joy, and they never once leave the audience saying “ya, right.” And though they are receiving little credit for their fairly simple portrayals, both Wilson and Aniston deserve kudos for giving John and Jenny the natural feel that was needed for the film to work.
While it’s the outrageous antics of Marley that are filling the seats in theaters nationwide, it is the heart of this movie that is keeping them there. Watching the “world’s worst dog” is a load of fun and even painful sometimes, but it also displays within the hidden bond, which only dog-lovers can truly understand. This adaptation of John Grogan’s real-life memoir Marley & Me is not one for the dogs. It is a film made simply for those who just “know”, and when it ends it reminds us all how special the words “good boy” really can be.
SCORE: 4/5
