Marley & Me

No movie this year, maybe EVER in your entire life, has tried this hard to tug at your emotions and make you cry, cheer and laugh. Too bad Marley & Me is too long and has trouble with nuance.

Based on the true story, Owen Wilson stars as John Grogan – a reporter in Florida trying to start his career and new marriage to Jennifer (Jennifer Aniston). As they settle into the new house and new life, John is advised by his consummate bachelor pal, Sebastian (Eric “McSteamy” Dane), to distract her from wanting children by bringing a dog into the mix. Now, they have the worst, most misbehaved, most overly energetic dog in the world, Marley.

Will Marley ever learn how to behave?

Marley & Me seems like a cute, kid friendly, wacky comedy, but the movie ends up being much more than that, and much less all at the same time. Director David Frankel constantly is trying to jam highly dramatic moments next to goofy ones without any attempt to build to these moments with some foreshadowing. The result is a stream of jarring moments that don’t fit together. It’s a movie that is all or nothing.

Then, writers Scott Frank and Don Roos (based on the novel by Grogan) don’t create a story. Marley & Me meanders through an entire dog’s lifetime so slowly and without direction that the 2 hours of movie feel like 14 hours in dog years. It goes on and on and on and on even once you have already figured out how it is going to end.

Sure, only the Grinch would be able to make it through Marley & Me without laughing at the cute little dog, and the ending does have a good impact, but this is not a movie. It’s a series of scenes put together back to back as if it should be a television series with several episodes instead of one comprehensive film.

Marley & Me is rated PG for thematic material, some suggestive content and language.