Marley and Me
The movie Marley and Me could have a sub-title like “The Story of Me as told my owner, Marley”. Any dog-lover who had willingly allowed themselves to be owned by the four-legged additions to their lives would heartily attest to this indisputable fact.
Dogs have a tendency to switch roles with the humans who presumed to own them in the beginning. In the movie, the human got owned very early in the relationship.
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Produced in 2008 by Fox 2000 Pictures with David Frankel in the director’s chair, aided by screenplay written by Scott Frank and Don Roos from the book by John Grogan, the movie Marley and Me was the cinematic depiction of a real dog in the real life of John Grogan. In the movie, Owen Wilson played John Grogan, a journalist, and Jennifer Aniston played Jennifer Grogan, his journalist wife. Marley, the canine star, was played by twenty-two dogs.
Marley was a Labrador. A Yellow Labrador, to be exact. The Labrador belongs to the Retriever group, a type of gun dog. An interesting characteristic of the Labrador is webbed paws, which is exactly what the doctor ordered, given that its original purpose was to retrieve fishing nets. Said purpose necessarily requires a lot of swimming and what better way to swim than with webbed feet, or webbed paws, in this case. Another outstanding characteristic is a very loving nature. Make that very, very very loving nature. This is a characteristic which all Labrador owners keep repeating to themselves like a mantra when their Labradors insists on re-arranging and/or disassembling their furniture and other personal effects.
Labradors originated from Canada from the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Of course. The founding breed was the St. John’s Water Dog which was also the founding breed for the Newfoundland. Back then, Labradors earned their keep by helping the fishermen find and pull in nets from the water. Today, Labradors tend to spend more time making a chaotic mess of their owners’ homes.
That was exactly what Marley did in the Grogans’ home. Pillows, cushions, books, anything and everything was fair game for Marley. Some to be chewed on and others to be torn apart. Even doors were not exempt. It was a wonder that they did not just put Marley in a bag and throw him into the sea or something. Sorry. Correction. No one and that excludes no one can look a Labrador in the eyes and not be overwhelmed. That’s before the Labrador knocks you over on its way to the next object to disassemble in its search for the unfindable object.
In the movie Marley and Me, Marley aged from puppyhood to the ripe old age of thirteen, which, in human years, would put him in the nineties. Along the way, the Grogans had three children. They had their share of tiffs and spats but the glue that kept their marriage together was Marley. Yes, the very same Marley that took apart their sofa was responsible for creating a bond which withstood the test of time.
Also Marley was responsible for contributing to the household income when John started a column about Marley and the column became a best-seller. In real life, John Grogan’s autobiographical book about Marley also became a hit at the stores despite John calling Marley the “Worst Dog in the World”. Marley would probably have called John the “Worst Liar in the World”.
So what happened in the end? Did Marley meet Mary and had a houseful of rambunctious puppies? And did the puppies go on to make sequels about Labradors playing soccer? Wish that was how the movie finished. Go and find out yourself watching the Marley and Me DVD.
Just try not to shoot the director for the way it turned out.
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