Marley and Me
Review by Matthew Rodgers
Old Yeller, Digby (remember him?), and more recently Beverley Hills Chihuahua. Dogs can be silver-screen icons and box-office gold. Such has been the case for Devil Wears Prada director, David Frankel’s latest literary adaptation of John Grogan’s canine based memoirs, which dominated the seasonal box-office in the US of A and finally reaches us after months of studio quarantine. The good news is that this gentle drama with a dog is no mongrel; it’s more like a blue ribbon crufts winner in the rom-dog-com category.
Newlyweds John (Wilson) and Jennifer (Aniston) are your picture perfect couple; looks, career, and charisma. It’s to the pair’s credit that they remain grounded and likeable with such sickly sweet attributes. Taking the theoretically sensible step of buying a “little clearance puppy” before considering children the couple are landed with “world’s worst dog” Marley, a hyperactive, noisy Labrador dog that’s as far from the Andrex pup as could possibly be. The trials and tribulations of pet ownership are documented in John’s weekly column, hence the book and this wonderfully gratifying film.
Marley and Me is littered with shaggy dog story clichés – poop jokes, out of control on a lease scenes, domestic destruction – but it transcends all of them because the drama is real, the issues are honest, and all of the performances are believable. It’s not so much a story about a dog, but one of a family, of which Marley is a vital part, forming an incredibly moving, simple, life affirming tale.
Grogan’s books also deal with some serious issues in a mature accessible way. Anybody that has owned a pet will no doubt find it crushingly sad, but as with all of the best family films – E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Bridge to Terabithia – the tackling of these necessary subjects is admirable, raising this above bog-standard family fare.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of fun to be had. The bond between Wilson and any one of the twenty two dogs playing Marley is requisitely charming, and grouching it up with the best lines is the wonderful Alan Arkin as Wilson’s newspaper boss; his straight faced delivery is priceless.
Some may criticise the story’s manipulative tear duct tickling narrative outcome, but even if you know where this is headed you’d be hard pressed to find anyone without a lump in their throat and a new found zest for life when the credits roll on this canine caper.
