Most of the appeal of Marley and Me really does come from Marley himself. Most people are interested in the movie because they have either read the book (which I have not) or have seen the dog commercial and gone "awwwwwwww". What's interesting though, is that the dog really isn't the focus here. It's the people. They made a cute dog movie...about people.
At least the story of the people is mostly interesting. We mostly just follow them through their lives as their change careers, get married, have kids, move, etc. It's mostly light-hearted stuff but it does occasionally venture into more dramatic territory. The shifts are never too jarring and work well enough. In fact I wish more of the story had been the dramatic segments because I was more engaged by them than I was any of the comedic stuff.
The comedy mostly plays it safe and sticks to the sitcom style of humour. You occasionally get a joke that is a little more on the risque side of things, but this is a family movie so they never go too far. As can be expected most of the humour comes from the antics of the dog. He eats things and destroys all kinds of shit, you know the routine. This actually leads into one of the larger problems I had with the movie.
I felt they should have spent more time with the dog in his lovable moments. So much of what he does is just destructive that we never get a chance to see exactly why the family loves him so much. I didn't hate the dog, absolutely not. But I think they should have shown some of the nicer moments they had with him. I've heard from people who have read the book that those moments are in there so why not include them? It's not as though you didn't have time, leading to my next complaint.
The movie is just too long. It's about 2 hours and when you really break down what happened during those 2 hours, it ain't a lot. I think they could have trimmed this thing down a little and made the movie better for it. I wouldn't really say it drags, but there is some unnecessary stuff in there for sure.
The actors all do fine. I'm not a fan of Jennifer Aniston but she does well here, even though I wanted to punch her character a couple of times. The same goes for Owen Wilson actually, who at least is a step forward from Drillbit Taylor. I actually thought the best character was Owen's boss, played by Alan Arkin. All of his scenes were stand-outs for sure.
I'm not going to talk too much about the ending but even those you aren't familiar with the book I'm sure know all about it by now. I still won't spoil it just in case but let's just say they don't let the audience off the hook easy with that shit. They go the route of cruel sadistic bastards who just want people to cry and be miserable. Manipulative, but powerful.
Marley & Me is a decent watch and something good for the family. Just get ready to dehydrate yourself from sobbing like an infant.
7/10
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