I know the movie Marley & Me has come and gone for a while already. But excuse a mother of a toddler for not being the latest movie buff. I only managed to catch the movie on DVD recently. And that also I had to break up my time to watch the movie over a few days. But it was worth the while watching it. I’ve always thought that it was going to be an easy and fun comedy to watch, with both the leading characters (Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson) being some of my favourite actors. But I found that the movie stirred up a lot of emotions in me than I had ever expected.
Marley & Me starts off with the story of a newly wedded couple Jenny and John moving to a new town to start a new life together. Both are journalists with good jobs and all set for a new life together as husband and wife. However, John feels that he is not quite ready for parenthood whilst feeling that his wife is ever ready for a baby in their lives. To compensate for not wanting a baby immediately, he ends up buying her a puppy. Now enters Marley in their lives.
Marley is a really funny and wild character of a dog. Throughout the show, he is indeed a difficult dog to handle. But he sees them through their daily lives, from Jenny losing her unborn baby at 10 weeks of pregnancy to the time when he tested Jenny’s patience to the maximum and almost got kicked out of the family, to the time when the family moved homes and having the additional of 3 beautiful children in the home.
Marley & Me captures the essence of parenthood in true reality and I’m sure many parents like me can relate. You see the difference of how a working woman can be such a wreck the moment she becomes a full time stay at home mum with no help in tow. The frustrations are all very real and after a while there wasn’t much of a comedy in the movie anymore.
Instead, in its place is a gentler phase of life where the couple now enters their 40s and you see a change in their lifestyle and priorities in life. And as they grow, so does Marley and it somehow becomes inevitable to know how the show will end. Marley shows signs of illness and eventually dies. It was a very touching moment when the family buries the old dog. For such a high spirited dog on the show, I thought it would be more befitting to give his soul some garden urns instead of a burial in the family home.
The movie stirred a lot of emotions in me in many aspects of life. For one thing I can definitely relate to the challenging times of a mother caring for her children, the kind of change and sacrifice in lifestyle that you make once you become a parent, and the relationship between spouses when there are kids in their lives. More than ever, I can also relate to the loss of a dear furry friend.
So much for just a relaxing comedy…I really didn’t expect Marley & Me to be so emotionally charged. It’s a movie that will stay in my memory for a long time. I might even watch it again after some time.
