Review of Marley & Me (2008) by Tonyo. — 15 Jan 2009

I hate to sound like a curmudgeon, but this movie is not that great. Yes, it deserves points for good acting (Jennifer Aniston takes the honours, much to my surprise) and yes it deserves points for being reasonably light-hearted and a bit sensitive about real topics that have some bearing on real people's lives (family, love of animals, work pressures, frustrated career options, post natal depression).

Not that many big screen movies these days make much attempt to deal with these sorts of issues, and it is not badly done. But this still looks like a Hallmark movie to me. For one thing, it is gratingly manipulative in OTT ways that I have not had to think about since they put a bullet into Old Yeller.

And the directing was pretty ho-hum, especially when we had the interminable sequence of rapid voiceover by Owen Wilson about the minutiae of his daily life. And the vision of middle class life in America was pretty cloying as well.

I do not really know what non WASP people in America think when they see a movie like this, but I imagine they might well wonder how a family struggling in a small house in a crime ridden suburb in Miami can somehow seamlessly make the transition to a green acres mansion in the North-East.

And worst of all was the dog. I know it is only a movie, and it is a bit harsh to criticise a dog that is faithful, long lived and integral to family life. But the damn thing was also a rogue male, and probably dangerous.

Offhand, on the evidence of this movie, I would have said the dog deserved to be put down about 8 years before the end of the film. Or rather, its owners should have been. We all love dogs, but to suggest that it is somehow OK to keep animals that are a public nuisance just because someone or other loves them is a bit rich.

Spare some thought about that rather large group of people whose lives have been seriously set back or even destroyed because there are irresponsible pet owners who just can't be bothered to control their animals.

The film skates over that side of things a bit. There is lots of running away, lots of references to pooping in public areas, but not too much about the real implications of keeping uncontrollable animals around small children.

So, overall, as a movie it was a bit dull, and more than a little irresponsible.