by Jenny Critchlow (Tue Oct 13, 2009)
It was with some trepidation that I went to see ‘Marley and
Me.' I'm not known for my love of RomComDog films, especially those where you
know you're going to cry at some point and soak the tangy bit off your cola
bottles. But it was the only screening which finished in time to get me into
bed before midnight, and these days that counts for more than an Oscar
nomination.
Anyway, the trepidation was fuelled by the sure and certain
knowledge that the film would be peppered with humorous, nay, laugh out loud,
scenes of a dog peeing in the wrong place, pulling a chair over to which his
lead is attached, licking an inappropriate person inappropriately, peeing on a
sandcastle or eating an entire dinner meant for the in-laws who are so awful
they don't deserve a lovely dinner, but therein lies the humour apparently.
Dogs do the funniest things.
Yes, some of these things do happen, and I did cry a little
into my cola bottles. It is, in a word, formulaic.
And yet, there is something else, something that made me
want to write this review. Something that resembles an insight into a Real
Marriage, a Real Family, what it Really Means to Have Children.
In the film, John (Owen Wilson) and Jennifer (Aniston)
Grogan are exhausted, and there is an attempt, albeit in Hollywood tones, to
present family life realistically. No cute toothless little girls in soft
nightgowns, fresh from a bubble bath, being read a goodnight story by an
enthusiastic home-on-time-and-willing-to-do-it daddy. No slim sensible Mum
dispensing just the right amount of advice to their teenage daughter, finished
with a smile and a ruffle of the hair. OK, so there are no realistic teenagers
either, stomping off to their smelly, unkempt bedrooms yelling an enthusiastic ‘I
Hate You!' But as I said, this is a
Hollywood attempt at realistic family life.
Instead, cute in-love couple marry, get a dog, have three
children and descend slowly but surely into the abyss that ensues after having
a family and juggling lives, loves and careers. This is no corner-turner of a
film, believe me, just a simple tale about a dog and his relationship with his
owners. But I walked away slightly wobbly. There was my life on film. Finally
someone had said it: It's hard and tiring, it wears you and your partner down,
sometimes you sit in the car wondering if you want to go in the house. But in
the end it's worth it, and the happiness it brings makes you cry into your cola
bottles.
