Review of Marley & Me (2008) by Brandon W — 08 May 2017

Marley & Me is directed by David Frankel, and it stars Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston in a dramedy about a married couple that wants to know what it's like to take care of someone, and so they bought a dog, which ends up being the worst dog they ever own as Marley doesn't listen to them, makes a mess of things, and pees and poops everywhere in the house.

I haven't seen this film in years, and the things that I remember from the movie are how troubling the dog is in terms of his behavior, and the ending. So I recorded it obviously, and when I was feeling a bit down at high school, and apparently in my weird mind, I thought that watching this film will make me feel better.

Marley & Me did actually made me feel a lot better, except the ending in a good way, which I'll get to that later. Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston are great in it which given with the right script that fits their characters, they can be really funny and hold up on their own in terms of the drama, which the writing by Scott Frank and Don Roos is well-written that put the characters in relatable situations, even if some moments of the drama felt a bit forced that is just there to risen up the situation.

The dog actors are fantastic in this that don't feel embarrassed to be doing the things that they shouldn't do and just act like actual dogs. The comedy in this is way more effective than the drama in the first two acts, that is until the last act kicks in which I'll now talk about it.

The last act is where the emotional strings are starting to kick in, and it's very effective that this movie is basically one of those films that will make anyone cry, especially for dog or pet owners in general which I used to have a dog when I was young until my mom had to drop the dogs off to different families as we have to move to a place that doesn't allow dogs, so I started to cry in that movie too.

Even if non-pet owners watch this, they probably get emotional in that scene also, which I'm glad that the movie does a good job of that part. It also a bit overlong at times, but there was never a time that I thought I was bored of the film.

Marley & Me is a great film that has a bit of nostalgia to me.