Marley And Me: Cheesy, But That's The Point

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replying the story in its archived form does not constitute a re-publiccation of the story.

Hollywood's adaptation of the insanely popular John Grogan novel Marley and Me joins the list of family-friendly films hoping to capitalize on the post-holiday movie rush. I'm usually not one of those "The book was much better." guys, but...the book was much better. That said, the novel topped the New York Times' Best Seller list for an extended run and remains one of the decade's most popular books, so the movie could be not as good and still be halfway decent, which is actually the case.

World's most adorable vacuum cleaner

Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston headline the flick with support coming from Eric Dane, Alan Arkin, and of course, a Humane Society's worth of pooches. The story (if you're one of the few who hasn't cracked the book,) is a predictable but smile-inducing tale of a clumsy (Grogan dubbed him "The World's Worst Dog") lab retriever who brings a young couple together by tearing everything in the house apart. If it sounds cheesy, it is...but let's not pretend we're expecting an Oscar winner here, you know the plot coming into the theater. Now that we've accepted the cheese factor, we're left with performance and dialogue.

Doesn't this just make you want a dog?

Wilson and Aniston turn in respectable performances as John and Jennifer Grogan, a young couple trying to juggle journalism careers and a growing brood. Jen's in her niche with the fluffy role, so it's believable to the audience to see her getting yanked along the beach by a giant mutt, spilling a bag of dog food, and so on. With his latest paychecks coming from Wedding Crashers and You, Me, and Dupree, Wilson also seems at home with a light comedy. Though director David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada) takes a few liberties with the novel's adaptation, he stays true to the story's critical events, but uses more than his fair share of horribly cheesy lines that my stomach wishes were left out of the story. As for the human portion of the Grogan clan, let's just say these kids should stay in school. Though I realize a young actor's role rarely defines a career, the handful that played Patrick, Conor, and Colleen make their scenes feel like an elementary school play. That, combined with the fact that the lines the kids delivered were considerably over their heads, made a distinguishing smudge on an otherwise likeable movie.

If you're a dog person, your appreciation for Marley and Me will grow tenfold. The giant pooch's antics are not only smirk-worthy, they're downright accurate as anyone with an oversized mutt will tell you. If you don't swing on the K9 side of the vine, either take the kids or wait for it to come out on DVD. Click the Video tab for the trailer. This one gets a C+.

This article also has 1 video attached to it.