I remember getting my cat some years ago and realizing that she would be with me into my 40s. The thought, transient and unsolicited as it was, was nonetheless profound because it revealed how rapidly my life was passing and how soon events that I once thought impossibly distant would be upon me. In the same way, Marley, the dog at the center of the sweet and winning Marley and Me, is the furry chronometer by which the Grogan family gauges the progression and richness of their own lives.
John and Jenny Grogan (Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston) decide on their wedding night to leave the snow of Michigan behind and start their new lives in the sunshine of West Palm Beach, Florida. The two journalists secure jobs at competing local papers and begin navigating the challenges of marriage and settling into their first home. When Jenny suggests a few years later that perhaps she’d like to start a family, John is caught off guard. Unprepared for the responsibility of children, he confesses his feelings to his best friend (Eric Dane) who recommends buying some time with a puppy.
The dog, like life, doesn’t exactly go according to plan. What John doesn’t know is that Marley, the adorable golden Labrador puppy he and Jenny adopt, is infinitely more work than a child, especially when the little bundle of energy grows into a 100-pound bull in a china closet, transforming the Grogan home into a federal disaster area. Marley shreds the sofa, inhales pillows, chews through walls, overturns garbage cans, drinks from the toilet, steals food from the kitchen and terrorizes the mailman. Desperate, John and Jenny take Marley to obedience school, which he is promptly kicked out of.
As John and Jenny learn to accept Marley’s less than ideal ways, he becomes an indispensable part of their lives, every bit a member of the family as the three children they eventually welcome into the world. Marley is the one, steady constant as the Grogans go through the ups and downs of family life, career shifts and home moves. Somehow “the world’s worst dog” becomes the best friend a family could have.
Marley and Me is packaged as a cute dog movie, but it’s not really (though there are more than enough such moments to please any dog lover or adoring child). Marley and Me is based on the memoir by the same name, which in turn was brought to life from the hundreds of columns John Grogan wrote about his family and their life with Marley. Although John dreamt of becoming a serious journalist, covering sober life and death subjects, he discovered, much to his surprise, that he was much better at and much more fulfilled in being a columnist. At one point in the film, John is asked by a new editor to describe exactly what his newspaper columns are about. He hems and haws for a moment before replying simplistically, “Life.” Such is Marley and Me. The film is not composed of grand plots, complicated narratives or weighty philosophy. It is simply a story about life and the joys and travails we all face in slogging our way through less-than-ideal jobs, changing diapers and doing our best to love our spouses.
We love our animals — specifically our dogs — precisely because they love us back unconditionally. No matter our mood, behavior or past history, their adoration is always on display, always ensuring that we feel needed, feel special and feel loved. If we humans can understand and translate just a little bit of our pets’ attitude towards those they care for, Marley and Me argues this holiday season, the world would be a far, far better place.
© Copyright 2008 Brandon Fibbs. All rights reserved.
