I picked Squared Arabic 48 as the fractal for today’s post for one reason and one reason only. Like Marley And Me, it’s pretty and mostly golden. Enjoy the review unless you’ve made other plans.-
Robyn and I have a long-standing Christmas tradition: every Christmas Day we head out around noon to check out a holiday movie. (Being “child free” and having the sense NOT to host large family gatherings on this day of dayswe can do that.) We try to pick something “uplifting” (or at least fun). This year we chose Marley And Me. (Sort of inevitable since we both like animal stories and they don‘t make many movies about cats.) With this movie we pretty much got what we expected.
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Most adults (at least those with half a brain) know what’s going to happen before Marley And Me even begins. Sadly there are those who will be fooled by the marketing campaign into believing this really IS just a movie about a wacky Golden Retriever puppy who grows up to have wacky adventures with his equally wacky owners. And yes, there’s plenty of that in here--but there is some “family drama” and the ending (which you know is inevitable from the opening credits) is a three-hanky weeper. (Yes, even this cynical old Baron got a little misty.) You can describe the whole story in one sentence: “bad” dog teaches his family about life and love.
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I can’t fault this movie for being what it is--but I wouldn’t earn my “Critic’s Chapeau” if I couldn’t find a few minor things to complain about. The biggest one is this: fortyish Owen Wilson and Jennifer Anniston, good as they look, don’t come off like twenty something newlyweds. (They start out looking forty and end that way too.) Even though the movie was supposed to span a decade or more, the two leads never change anything--hair, clothing, looks attitude--and that bothers me at least a little. They play John and Jenny Grogan with an earnestness that’s never quite cloying but they both manage to annoy me a bit: how could two otherwise intelligent people walk into something like dog ownership without doing something in the way of research or making more of an effort to train their unruly dog? I also had HUGE problems with John’s general dissatisfaction with life: when he doesn’t like being a reporter but resents being forced to write a column (and when the column proves hugely successful he wants to go back to being a Reporter--but once he moves across country for the new job he wants to be a Columnist again!) Likewise, driven Jenny decides to quit work and become a stay-at-home Mom but resents her hubby and doesn’t want help: makes no sense to me. Still, Wilson and Anniston manage to make both the funny and sad scenes believable.
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It took 22 dogs to play Marley from puppyhood through his senior years but you'd never know it by looking at the movie. There's never a hint of difference from dog to dog. Alan Arkin does fine as John's curmudgeonly yet loveable editor in Miamia and Eric Dane isn't called on to do much of anything but look hunky. This movie rises and falls on the strength of the dog(s) and lead actors' performances.
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Marley And Me is NOT a movie for young children. Yes, there are a lot of funny bits but there are some serious moments that would lead to “awkward” discussion with your child so keep kids under age eight away from this movie (unless your child is exceptionally mature or you enjoy having difficult talks.) For a more mature crowd Marley And Me is a fine movie.
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FINAL GRADE: A-
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