MARLEY & ME (PG)

MARLEY & ME (PG)
Cast: Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston, Eric Dane, Alan Arkin
Running Time: 1hr 55mins
Director: David Frankel
Released: July 6

NOTHING comes closer to “playing it safe” for Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston than a critic-proof pet movie.
Despite anything I say this will still have the punters rolling into the multiplexes without tarnishing the leads’ future film pay deals.
Dog lovers will empathise with just about everything in this family-friendly flick – encompassing the role of a mutt in day-to-day life from puppy onwards – and to be fair, for the most part, it does it pretty well.
This mish-mash of a movie sometimes struggles to actually know what it wants to be – starting as a comedy, hinting at a ‘The Break Up’ style darker middle, then turning into a dramatic “weapy” during the final third – but a lot of cinema-goers will at some point have witnessed similar trials and tribulations with a dog at their side from family or friends.
The movie chronicles the fledgling marriage of journalists John Grogan (Wilson) – the novelist on which the story is based – and Jen (Aniston), as the hubbie buys his wife a Labrador pup called Marley to put the impending temptation to “try for kids” on the backburner.
But due to their busy newspaper column careers spiralling upwards, the couple have bitten off more than they can chew with the “unhouse-trained” Marley – which leads to the usual “bad dog” shenanigans and tomfoolery (dog eats couch, tears up the house due to lightning, poops inside etc) that needs little “seen it all before” explanation.
Further down the line, when the couple finally start their offspring, things turn sour as the misbehaving mutt makes life unbearable for the new mom, with two (then a third) screaming kids to handle as well.
But through years, the now infamous Marley proves to be one “constant” part of their lives – from the inception of their marriage – that glues them (and family) together through their relationship woes.
In fact, the tad overlong ‘Marley & M’e proves to have the similar ups and downs as the couple, but despite some unnecessary sentimentality, an underdeveloped “splitting up” sub-plot, and a sweet, if gimmicky, ending – Wilson and one-trick pony Aniston coast through in third gear to make this watchable fare.
It doesn’t quite have enough bite to make it linger in the memory for too long – but there’s more than enough barks to keep the whole family happy.

ESP Rating: 3/5

Gavin Miller