Marley is a Treat

Marley and Me
MovieHook Rating... (B)

"A dog doesn't care if your rich or poor, clever or dull, smart or dumb. Give him your heart and he will give you his."

I don't have very many memories of my grade school days, but some things are just hard to forget. When I was nine years old my family had a dog named Dolly, and one day Dolly ran away before I got on the bus for school. I cried all day long, and I wanted to leave school, and go look for her. And when I came home she was sitting right in front of the door waiting for me. If I think back to my childhood, Dolly was one constant thing i can remember through the good times and the bad, and watching Marley and Me brings back all of those wonderful memories. Marley and Me may be a good movie for anyone, but if you grew up with a dog of your own, Marley and Me will speak directly too you.

Marley and Me opens in a snowstorm on the wedding night of John (Owen Wilson) and Jennifer (Jennifer Aniston) Grogan. The Grogans are both reporters who move out to Miami after their wedding to get away from the cold weather. In a plight to keep his wifes mind off of having kids. John takes the advice of his rowdy college buddy Sebastian (Eric Dane) and surprises Jenn with a dog. During their first day together John hears a song by Bob Marley, and decides to name the dog Marley. And so it begins, the Grogans try everything to whip their dog into shape, but nothing seems to work. Even so, they still love Marley more than anything in the world.

John has always dreamt of becoming a real reporter, but his boss (Alan Arkin) doesn't see it that way. He convinces John to write columns, but John doesn't have the slighest idea what to write about. After doing some soul searching, John decides to write about Marley, and his boss tells him to keep writing the funny stories. John is finally seeing a little success, but Jenn goes another route. She quits her job and starts having kids. This starts a trend of fighting between the couple, as Jenn is overwhelmed with her mother roll. John starts to wonder if he enjoys his life at all anymore, and the only constant thing he can look to is Marley, but Marley isn't making Jenn happy when he tears up the house. John sees his friend Sebastian and all his success at the New York Times, and the single life he leads, and wonders if that should be him. But he remembers all the good times he had with Jenn before they had kids, and he knows that they can peice things back together.

Marley and me is based on the book by the real life John Grogan, and was actually about Grogan's real life dog. The casting for this movie was questionable, and the kids don't really seem lifelike until the end of the movie. They don't really have any lines or scenes until the end. But I believe Owen Wilson is underrated as an actor. The scenes he has with Marley are touching, and you can't help but see a friendliness between them. Jennifer Aniston only acts in one genre of movies (Recycled Romantic Comedy), and it looks like she is finally making progress in life after Rachel Green (Friends). Overall the story is good, and the dog is a lot of fun to watch. I wouldn't drop everything and see this movie, but I would say that everyone should rent it when it hits Dvd.

Marley and Me is for all ages, and I wouldn't hesitate to bring the whole family to go see it.