Movie Thoughts: Marley & Me (2008)

• Released: 25 December 2008
• Directed by: David Frankel
• Running time: 1 h 55 min
• Rating 3/5

Synopsis

A young couple adopts the an un-trainable Labrador retriever and from here on we follow their lives as Marley the dog grows older and more out of control.

My Thoughts

This movie I was told is just as emotionally heart-wrenching as stuff like Hachi: A Dog's Tale. And...I don't know, I really didn't get that emotionally invested at all in this one.

First things first, I think the reason why is pretty clear from the start: I just don't like these two human main characters we follow. They're a nice couple and all, but I just didn't like their personalities at all and they were kind of acting like assholes sometimes. Not overly so, but enough to make me dislike them, which is a problem when they're the central focus of the movie (not counting the dog). The only thing I'll really praise the main characters for is them being decent parents and them not getting rid of Marley despite the dog being a complete loose cannon.

But there's also these moments where they make decisions that just has me raising my eyebrows. First of all, they adopt the dog way too lightly. Marley is literally given to the wife as a gift and not adopted with any consideration beforehand, not from the husband, either. They just buy the dog, who afterwards turns out to be a very difficult animal. You don't "just" adopt a dog or any pet for that matter, it's something that needs careful consideration.

From here on I once more felt myself facepalming internally because they're just not good dog-owners. Letting the dog off-leash sometimes where it isn't allowed, and above all, they only try one dog training class with him. One. After which they immediately give up on training him. Which just shows how they're not good dog-owners. Marley is out of control and it's their job as his owners to make sure he doesn't cause trouble. Heck, he's causing a lot of trouble for the couple themselves as well, so why don't they enlist another dog training expert? It just feels so frustrating when these characters I already don't like also turn out to be pretty bad dog owners. But, again, they do keep on loving Marley, so I'll give them that.

Finally, the emotional ending that got everyone (minus me) so upset: Marley dies. And this didn't grip me as emotional, I'm sorry to say. First reason obviously being that I don't care about the human characters, so naturally I don't care if they feel sad, but also because Marley didn't have a bad life (despite his owners being trash dog owners). 

My housemate compared this movie's ending to Hachi, but that movie was so emotional because the I liked the professor as a character and the titular Hachi had a very long and depressing life with him waiting every single day for nine years for his owner who never came back. Meanwhile, here Marley got to live a happy life of him being a complete loose cannon without ever being truly reprimanded for it before he died of old age being very loved by his entire family. That's...not really a sad ending to me. Yes, he dies, but he dies happily after having lived his life to the fullest (heck, fuller than most dogs because his owners never controlled him). Not sadly and alone like Hachi did.

So overall I just didn't really connect that well with this movie. The human main characters are frustratingly bad dog owners and the ending didn't pull on any of my heartstrings. It's still a decent film, but I personally found it to be frustrating rather than emotional.