Movie Review - Marley & Me

***1/2 of 5 stars

When Jerry and I left home to attend Winona State the fall of 1988, there obviously must have been some void to be filled in the house. I remember coming home for christmas and going to Randhurst Mall as a family. They had a pet store in the basement of the mall. Needless to say it was dad who fell in love with Brandie first. She was a sheltie and she came home with us that night as a "gift" to the family...but mostly as a gift to mom.

Mom wasn't all that thrilled. However Brandie grew on her I think.

Our family up until this point had merely had about 10 hamsters and a dozen fish. We weren't really a pet-friendly household. So the addition of Brandie was a change.

She loved us and we loved her. She loved to go on rides in the car and was particularly excited when mom got out her yellow backpack which meant she was packing for a trip to our summer home in the wisconsin dells. She loved to herd and run and bask in the sunshine. She loved to sit on my lap and tear apart white socks which were apparently her arch nemesis.

She died about 13 years ago...maybe longer from cancer. She was on vacation with mom at the Dells and just fell ill. We weren't there so mom had to take her to the vet and mom was with her when she died. She's buried by the lilac bush near the fence at our property in the Dells - seemed fitting to have that be her final resting place. She so loved it there.

Marley & Me is based on the best selling novel by the same name. It's about a couple played by Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson who get married and start checking off milestones in their lives. To avoid rushing into having children Owen's character is convinced by his freeliving best friend to get a dog and the havoc and love that ensues is what the movie is about.

There were a few points in the movie that I was laughing so hard and by the end I was crying equally as hard. It's probably a great thing that I saw this movie by myself. I was and probably still am a mess from the crying jag.

The movie has many themes but the underlying theme that was apparent to me is that life sometimes just doesn't turn out the way you plan and that sometimes going with the flow makes it even better than your plans. All we have is each other and if you love someone (dog or human) and look past their quirks, sometimes a treasure is found. But you have to be able to compromise past the quirks to find that your life is better than your plans. It doesn't always work but in this instance, the story, the characters, the dog, jennifer and owen's characters - they all did.

I also rather enjoyed the fact that they were journalists. I always thought of maybe being a journalist someday. Maybe that's what this sorry excuse for a blog is about. A way to write, to work with words, to journal about life, to savor the cadence of sentences and explore composition? They mostly concentrated on Owen's character who just seemingly fell into the career by accident almost. Which I found a bit implausible.

I did love the supporting character played by Alan Arkin. Ever since Indian Summer I've loved him in movies, particularly when he plays this type of character - a dry sarcastic editor who gives bumbling but sage advice.

I will say this...I'm not giving anything away by saying that it's a sad movie. (Seriously I was still sniffling/crying when I got to the parking lot.) There are a lot of people online who are complaining that they hated the movie because it was depressing and all movies that come out on Christmas with a cute frolicking dog should be happy. That they weren't "warned" before they went that an Owen Wilson/Dog movie would be happy.

Much like Old Yeller back in the day was sad, dogs die. (And really this is not a spoiler alert.) Families have to deal with the death of a dog just as much as with their life. If you want a bumbling dog movie - rent Beethoven.

I think though the redeeming quality of this film is that they didn't just package up the film into some neat little happy package and say merry christmas but instead you are left with the whole story of one family and their dog. They could have easily gotten another dog but then the story should have maybe been called something else.

I only gave it 3 1/2 stars because I didn't want to over sell it. It's a good movie, but may not be for everyone.