Marley & Me

I enjoyed this film, despite it’s shortcomings. First the good. The film does a great job showing how positively the dog, Marley, affects the family he lives with. Underneath all the antics is an animal that senses happiness and pain and is there to protect and sooth. However the dog’s lack of discipline provides an almost bottomless source of amusement. But the same antics repeated over and over can get a little tiresome, amusing or not. It doesn’t take long to understand that Marley is a destructive dog, although the destruction is likely collateral damage. I found it difficult to understand why a dog such as this would never be trained. There’s an attempt, but it’s half-hearted at best. Plus the film hinted at darker reasons for Marley’s behavior which were never fully developed. The Sebastian character could have been left on the cutting room floor without affecting the story in any way. Plus there was an extended montage/expository sequence near the beginning of the film that seemed completely out of place and excruciatingly tedious. But, in the end I was won over by Marley, and he left me feeling misty-eyed.