Friday 27th March 2009, 00:30
Marley & Me, and me
Finally saw Marley & Me yesterday. If you haven't seen nor heard of it, it's about a dog, and the effect of said dog on the relationship of his owners. It's based on a book by John Grogan, the guy Owen Wilson plays in the film, so it's all a true story, and charts the life of this quite normal couple from when they get Marley as a puppy to when Marley finally, erm, well I don't want to ruin it but...
Put it this way, it's a heartstring-tugger. And I went into this film knowing the ending, and knowing it was described as 'sentimentality porn' by Mark Kermode. For an hour I sat there and watched the relatively uneventful life of this couple unfold on the screen (for better or for worse, the life of this couple is very 'real', so there are no big shock affairs, murder plots, double-crossings etc), thinking "Any minute now they're going to try and make us cry. I'll get through this. It's only a dog. A dog whose fate I know. And I know full well they'll do anything to activate those tear-ducts. We can do this, Paul. Stare them out, with dry eyes..."
"Your dog's looking a bit peaky."
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh.
Couldn't help it. The very hint that Marley may have the vaguest of limps, a good 20 minutes off any kind of final resolution to his storyline (still not technically giving anything away here...), and I was bawling like a baby. Like a baby girl. Well, like a 30 year-old guy who's already seen two of his own dogs (of the same breed, no less) go through a similar thing, whose parents have yet two more dogs of a similar breed, who - as in the film - is trying to convince his wife-to-be that a dog is a key part to a family home - for the uplifting, the downbeat, the good, the bad and the Marley. So for a good chunk of this film, I was Owen Wilson. Oh and great - as I'm typing this, iTunes has decided to shuffle onto Everybody Hurts by REM. Brilliant.
Ah well. Cathartic to have a good cry now and then. And do I still want a dog? Eventually, yes. But far enough into the future that I've forgotten the ending of this film, and that dogs do eventually die.
Oh balls. Gave away the ending now.