Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageMarley & Me (2008)
Director: David Frankel
Movie review
From Time Out London
With its child-friendly rating and top billing for an unruly golden Labrador, ‘Marley & Me’ leads one to expect a straightforward saga of man’s best friend. But this film is a more complicated animal. Although it hardly stints on Marley’s mischief-making appetite for frolicking naughtiness and chomping on just about anything he can get between his incisors, it’s mostly a bittersweet portrait of a couple settling down to family life and feeling like they’ve sold out on their youthful ambitions.Owen Wilson (carrying his own baggage of off-screen melancholia) plays the real-life Miami journo whose series of popular columns on life with a four-legged miscreant got the ball rolling. Meanwhile, Jennifer Aniston is a sympathetic match as the reporter girlfriend-turned-spouse who leaves work to raise their kids after juggling both proves a nightmare.
With its peachy star casting and impeccably art-directed lifestyles, the latest from ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ director David Frankel is too glossy to cut very deep, but there’s a core of truth as we see a family coming to shape itself around the loveable pooch they initially bought as a child substitute, all the while squaring up career sacrifices against the restorative recompense of domesticity.
Marley himself (played by 22 different dogs, don’t you know!) frequently takes a back seat when work and childcare issues dominate the proceedings, but he looms large in a final reel that draws tears, and feels like it’s earned them. Evidently contrived and something of an ungainly hybrid, the film shares its canine protagonist’s facility for wearing down your resistance.
Author: Trevor Johnston
Time Out London issue 2012, Mar 12-18 2009
User reviews of this film
-
- Drainer said...
-
Posted on Mar 12 2009 12:21
Not as funny as I thought it would be but a good film.
Take a tissue... - Report as inappropriate
-
- Woofer said...
- Posted on Mar 12 2009 09:00 Take a tissue for the finale! Not bursting with roll-on-the- floor-laughs but an entertaining watch nonetheless.
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Laura said...
-
Posted on Mar 11 2009 22:28
Omg no comments?
IS THIS FILM GOOD?
Might Go See It On Sat =]
It Looks Good So Tell Me Is It? - Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: David Frankel
Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Owen Wilson, Kathleen Turner, Alan Arkin, Eric Dane, Nathan Gamble, Haley Bennett full cast
Rated: PG
Duration: 115 mins
UK Release: Mar 13 2009
US Release: Dec 25 2008
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Review: Penélope Cruz more raunchy than ever in 'Nine'
Dave Calhoun reports on Rob Marshall's Oscar-touted musical with Daniel Day-Lewis playing a troubled director
Time Out's 101 Films of the Decade
Ten years, thousands of movies and millions of dollars in international box office, and it all boils down to this
Jim Jarmusch on 'The Limits of Control'
Jim Jarmusch has followed ‘Broken Flowers’ with an esoteric crime mystery. Dave Calhoun speaks to him from his New York office
Richard Linklater on 'Me and Orson Welles'
Dave Calhoun meets the 49-year-old, Houston-born filmmaker Richard Linklater to discuss his new comedy
Our verdict on Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones
Peter Jackson ends a triumphant decade with a sentimental misfire with this lush Alice Sebold adaptation
On the set of Ken Loach's 'Route Irish'
Dave Calhoun meets Ken Loach on the set of his forthcoming Iraq war movie
Is 'Paranormal Activity' the new 'Blair Witch'?
How does a film go from DIY experiment to box-office smash? 'Paranormal Activity' director Oren Peli explains
A gateway to all things 'New Moon'
In anticipation of 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon', Time Out is offering the chance to pick up a limited edition pack with three exclusive magazines and a free poster.
The films that deserve a TV spin-off
With Roland Emmerich suggesting he'd like to make a '2012' TV spin-off, we propose some more movie-to-TV serialisations
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations
What do you think?
Post your review now