Marley & Me

Starring Jennifer Aniston, Owen Wilson, & Eric Dane

Sometimes I don’t see movies in the theater out of laziness, or even lack of interest.  And then there are other movies that I don’t see anywhere but the comfort of my own home because I don’t want to embarrass myself in public by how I react.  Welcome to Marley & Me.

I knew going into this movie that it was essentially the life story of the dog Marley, his entire life with this family, including his eventual death.  Even knowing this, I was not prepared for how emotional this movie made me.  I got teary at the overwhelming happiness of the dog when he got to finally run into the ocean, and progressively more sad as we saw Marley age and decline in health.

Obviously you get to see the family and lives change around Marley, going from a newlywed couple to an eventual three kids, as well as job changes and a big move.  I think this is a story that will touch you no matter what, but it is especially gripping if you have a dog or are a dog lover.  Perhaps selfishly, this story was never fully about the people to me, but more about that dog.  And I think the movie does a good job of showing you just how mucha a part of your life a dog can be if you let it.

There were definitely similarities between my own dogs and Marley, particularly with the thunderstorms.  Neither of mine howl like he did, but they certainly shake and hide from the awful noise.  It’s scary!

And for the record, I have been known to call one of my dogs the worst dog in the world too.

My own dogs slept in the room with me while I was watching the movie, for once not interested in the barks and howls they heard on the TV.  Maybe they didn’t want to draw attention to themselves, or more parallels between their behavior and Marley’s.

One of the things I love about animals is that they’re able to sense how you’re feeling, and I think they could tell that the movie was affecting me.  Perhaps it was affecting them too, because my aging dog climbed up and leaned on me for the last fifteen minutes or so of the movie.  Fortunately, both of mine seem healthy now, because I don’t look forward to the time when I’ll have to go through the last days of my dogs life either.  And neither of them are as destructo puppy as Marley.

See this movie if: You like dogs, or read the book…although I haven’t read the book at this point.  It really is a cute movie, so I recommend it for all.

My Rating: 3.5/5

Six Degrees of Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Jennifer Aniston was in Love Happens with Judy Greer
Judy Greer was in Jawbreaker with Julie Benz
Julie Benz played Darla on BTVS