MARLEY & ME
Directed by David FrankelStarring Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston
PLOTA family learns important life lessons from their adorable, but naughty and neurotic dog.
WHAT I THOUGHT
Oh dear. My life has reached a new low writing this review. I seriously hate dog films. There seems to have been a wave of them recently. It's getting very tiresome. The two worst contenders I feel so far are "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" and the awesomely titled "Hotel for Dogs". I was really not looking forward to this one as you might expect, but my girlfriend forced me too against my will.
I am ashamed to tell you that I liked this film.
That's because of one main reason. It hasn't been marketed right at all. This is not a dog film. This is quite an emotional drama based around Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston trying to start a family. The dog is one part of their lives, and the film does focus on him a lot. But he is more a narrative device used to view the family's life.
The film chronicles about 15 years of their life together, and I really enjoyed this aspect of it. The film "Click" that came out a few years ago was marketed as a pure comedy, when the actual film was a hard to watch at times drama about a man losing everything. I don't know why film studios do this sometimes, but the trailers are made in a way that doesn't represent the final film. This is one of those films.
There is actually one scene in the middle that really surprised me, because I wasn't expecting it in a film like this. I won't give it away, because it has been hidden well.
As for the actual dog... not too bad. The animal training mixed between very good and stuff I've seen before. I did particularly like one scene where Marley tries to jump out of a moving car and ends up walking along the road with two legs while his back ones are still in the car. I admit that I've never seen a dog do that before!
It's a film that makes you think about family and what can happen if you decide to start one. Like I said... be brave and give it a try. You may like it.
BEST MOMENT
When Jennifer Anniston's character goes to the gynaecologist for the first time. Wasn't expecting what happened.