.gif)
Marley & Me (film)
Encyclopedia
Marley & Me is a 2008 American comedy-drama film directed by David Frankel
. The screenplay by Scott Frank
and Don Roos
is based on the memoir of the same name
by John Grogan
. The film was released in the United States and Canada on December 25, 2008, and set a record for the largest Christmas Day box office ever with $14.75 million in ticket sales.
and Jennifer Aniston
) escape the brutal Michigan winters and relocate to a cottage in southern Florida, where they are hired as reporters for competing newspapers. At The Palm Beach Post
, Jenny immediately receives prominent front-page assignments, while at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, John finds himself writing obituaries and two-paragraph articles about mundane news like a fire at the local garbage dump.
When John senses Jenny is contemplating motherhood, his friend and co-worker Sebastian Tunney (Eric Dane
) suggests the couple adopt a dog to see if they're ready to raise a family. From a litter of newborn yellow labrador retriever
s they select Marley (named after reggae
singer Bob Marley
), who immediately proves to be incorrigible. They take him to Ms. Kornblut (Kathleen Turner
), who firmly believes any dog can be trained, but when Marley refuses to obey commands, she expels him from her class.
Editor Arnie Klein (Alan Arkin
) offers John a twice-weekly column in which he can discuss the fun and foibles of everyday living. At first stumped for material, John realizes the misadventures of Marley might be the perfect topic for his first piece. Arnie agrees, and John settles into his new position. Marley continues to wreak havoc on the household, providing John with a wealth of material for his column, which becomes a hit with readers and helps increase the newspaper's circulation. Jenny becomes pregnant, but loses the baby early in her first trimester. She and John travel to Ireland for a belated honeymoon, leaving the rambunctious dog in the care of a young woman who finds him impossible to control, especially during the frequent thunderstorms that plague the area. Soon after returning from their vacation, Jenny discovers she is pregnant again, and this time she delivers a healthy boy, Patrick. When she has a second son, Connor, she opts to give up her job and become a stay-at-home mom, prompting John to take on a daily column for a pay increase. Due to the crime rate, the couple decides to move to a larger house in the safer neighborhood of Boca Raton, where Marley delights in swimming in the backyard pool.
Although she denies she is experiencing postpartum depression
, Jenny exhibits all the symptoms, including a growing impatience with Marley and John, who asks Sebastian to care for the dog when Jenny insists they give him away. She quickly comes to realize he has become an indispensable part of the family and agrees he can stay. Sebastian accepts a job for The New York Times
and moves away. A few years later, John and Jenny welcome a daughter, Colleen, to their family.
John celebrates his 40th birthday. Increasingly disenchanted with his job, he decides to accept a position as a reporter with The Philadelphia Inquirer
with Jenny's blessing, and the family moves to a farm in rural Pennsylvania
. John soon realizes that he is a better columnist than reporter and pitches the column idea to his editor. Life is idyllic until the aging Marley begins to show signs of arthritis and deafness. An attack of gastric dilatation volvulus almost kills him, but he recovers. When a second attack occurs, it becomes clear surgery will not help him, and Marley is euthanized
with John at his side. The family pay their last respects to their beloved pet as they bury him beneath a tree in their front yard.
The film was shot on location in Florida's West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood
, Miami and Dolphin Stadium
, in addition to Philadelphia and West Chester
in Pennsylvania. The Irish honeymoon scenes were shot in and around Ballynahinch Castle, Connemara, Ireland.
The film's score was composed by Theodore Shapiro
, who previously had worked with director Frankel on The Devil Wears Prada
. He recorded it with the Hollywood Studio Symphony
at the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century Fox
.
Dave Barry
, Grogan's fellow South Florida humor columnist, makes an uncredited cameo as a guest at the surprise party celebrating Grogan's 40th birthday.
and a 53% positive rating on Metacritic
.
Todd McCarthy of Variety
said the film is "as broad and obvious as it could be, but delivers on its own terms thanks to sparky chemistry between its sunny blond stars, Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston, and the unabashed emotion-milking of the final reel. Fox has a winner here, likely to be irresistible to almost everyone but cats ... Animated and emotionally accessible, Aniston comes off better here than in most of her feature films, and Wilson spars well with her, even if, in the film's weaker moments, he shows he's on less certain ground with earnest material than he is with straight-faced impertinence."
Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter
observed that "seldom does a studio release feature so little drama - and not much comedy either, other than when the dog clowns around . . . [W]hatever Marley wants to be about - the challenges of marriage or the balancing act between career and family - gets subsumed by pet tricks. Dog lovers won't care, and that basically is the audience for the film. From Fox's standpoint, it may be enough . . . Marley & Me is a warm and fuzzy family movie, but you do wish that at least once someone would upstage the dog."
Roger Ebert
of the Chicago Sun-Times
called the film "a cheerful family movie" and added, "Wilson and Aniston demonstrate why they are gifted comic actors. They have a relationship that's not too sitcomish
, not too sentimental, mostly smart and realistic", whilst Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly
graded the film A-, calling it "the single most endearing and authentic movie about the human–canine connection in decades. As directed by David Frankel, though, it's also something more: a disarmingly enjoyable, wholehearted comic vision of the happy messiness of family life."
Steve Persall of the St. Petersburg Times
was also very positive, graded the film B and commenting, "Marley & Me practically leaps at viewers like a pound puppy seeking affection, and darn if it doesn't deserve some . . . Things could get mushier or sillier, but Frankel and screenwriters Scott Frank and Don Roos — who usually handle grittier material — decline to play the easy, crowd-pleasing game. Their faith in Grogan's simple tale of loyalty among people and pets is unique, and it pays off . . . [It] isn't extraordinary cinema, but it relates to everyday people in the audience in a way that few movies do without being dull."
Walter Addiego of the San Francisco Chronicle
said, "this love letter to man's best friend will make dog fanciers roll over and do tricks. It's so warmhearted, you'll want to run out and hug the nearest big, sloppy mutt." The praise continued with Carrie Rickey of the Philadelphia Inquirer awarding the film three out of four stars and saying, "Marley and Me operates on the assumption that happiness is a warm tongue bath. And those who endorse this belief will enjoy this shaggy dog story . . . The anecdotal structure does not make for a gripping movie. For one thing, there's no conflict, unless you count the tension between a guy and his untrainable pooch. Yet Marley boasts animal magnetism . . . Mawkish? Sometimes. But often very funny and occasionally very moving."
The film had its bad reviews though, with Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times
calling it "an imperfect, messy and sometimes trying film that has moments of genuine sweetness and humor sprinkled in between the saccharine and the sadness."
Peter Bradshaw
of The Guardian
was unimpressed, awarding the film one out of five stars and commenting, "the relentless gooey yuckiness and fatuous stereotyping in this weepy feelbad comedy gave me the film critic's equivalent of a boiling hot nose," while Philip French
of The Observer
said, "the one redeeming feature is the presence as Wilson's editor of that great deadpan, put-on artist Alan Arkin, a comedian who can do a double-take without moving his head." Further criticism came from Colm Andrew of the Manx Independent
who said that "Marley himself is surprisingly one-dimensional" and the ending was over-emotional, going "for the heart-wrenching kind which will always provoke a response, but does so with absolutely no grace".
Marley & Me was placed #5 in a poll of "20 movies that make men cry".
in 2001. It earned a total of $51.7 million over the four-day weekend and placed #1 at the box office, a position it maintained for two weeks. As of August 13, 2009, it had grossed $143,153,751 in the US and $99,563,362 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $242,717,113.
released the film on DVD
and Blu-ray Disc
on March 31, 2009. Viewers have the option of a single disc or a two-disc set called the Bad Dog Edition. The film is in anamorphic widescreen
format with audio tracks in English, French, and Spanish and subtitles in English and Spanish. Bonus features on the two-disc set include Finding Marley, Breaking the Golden Rule, On Set with Marley: Dog of All Trades, Animal Adoption, When Not to Pee, How Many Takes, a gag reel, and the Purina Dog Chow Video Hall of Fame and Marley & Me video contest finalists. The DVD has sold a total of 3,514,154 copies generating $61.41 million in sales revenue.
A prequel to the movie, Marley & Me: The Puppy Years, was released direct-to-video
on June 1, 2011.
David Frankel
David Frankel is an American director, screenwriter and executive producer. He is the son of Max Frankel, a former executive editor of The New York Times...
. The screenplay by Scott Frank
Scott Frank
Scott Frank is an American screenwriter & director.- Filmography :*Plain Clothes *Dead Again *Little Man Tate *Malice *Get Shorty...
and Don Roos
Don Roos
Donald Paul Roos is an American screenwriter and film director.-Life and career:Roos was born in New York. He attended the University of Notre Dame in Indiana...
is based on the memoir of the same name
Marley & Me
Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog is a New York Times bestselling autobiographical book by journalist John Grogan, published in 2005, about the thirteen years he and his family shared their life, home, and heart with Marley, a possibly neurotic, and certified "untrainable",...
by John Grogan
John Grogan (journalist)
John Grogan is an American journalist and non-fiction writer. His memoir Marley & Me was a best-selling book about his family's dog Marley.- Career :...
. The film was released in the United States and Canada on December 25, 2008, and set a record for the largest Christmas Day box office ever with $14.75 million in ticket sales.
Plot
Soon after their wedding, John and Jenny Grogan (Owen WilsonOwen Wilson
Owen Cunningham Wilson is an American actor and writer, known for his roles in the films The Haunting, The Royal Tenenbaums, Zoolander, Meet the Parents, Wedding Crashers, You, Me and Dupree, Bottle Rocket, the Cars series, The Darjeeling Limited, Marley & Me, Midnight in Paris, Shanghai Noon,...
and Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Joanna Aniston is an American actress, film director, and producer, best known for her role as Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends, a role which earned her an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.Aniston has also enjoyed a successful film career,...
) escape the brutal Michigan winters and relocate to a cottage in southern Florida, where they are hired as reporters for competing newspapers. At The Palm Beach Post
The Palm Beach Post
The Palm Beach Post is a major daily newspaper in Florida, serving Palm Beach County in South Florida, and the Treasure Coast area. It is the 72nd largest daily newspaper in the United States and the sixth largest in Florida.-History:...
, Jenny immediately receives prominent front-page assignments, while at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, John finds himself writing obituaries and two-paragraph articles about mundane news like a fire at the local garbage dump.
When John senses Jenny is contemplating motherhood, his friend and co-worker Sebastian Tunney (Eric Dane
Eric Dane
Eric Dane is an American actor. After appearing in television roles throughout the 1990s and 2000s, he became known for playing Dr...
) suggests the couple adopt a dog to see if they're ready to raise a family. From a litter of newborn yellow labrador retriever
Labrador Retriever
The Labrador Retriever is one of several kinds of retriever, a type of gun dog. A breed characteristic is webbed paws for swimming, useful for the breed's original purpose of retrieving fishing nets. The Labrador is the most popular breed of dog by registered ownership in Canada, the United...
s they select Marley (named after reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
singer Bob Marley
Bob Marley
Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers...
), who immediately proves to be incorrigible. They take him to Ms. Kornblut (Kathleen Turner
Kathleen Turner
Mary Kathleen Turner is an American actress. She came to fame during the 1980s, after roles in the Hollywood films Body Heat, Peggy Sue Got Married, Romancing the Stone, The War of the Roses, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Prizzi's Honor...
), who firmly believes any dog can be trained, but when Marley refuses to obey commands, she expels him from her class.
Editor Arnie Klein (Alan Arkin
Alan Arkin
Alan Wolf Arkin is an American actor, director, musician and singer. He is known for starring in such films as Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Marley & Me, and...
) offers John a twice-weekly column in which he can discuss the fun and foibles of everyday living. At first stumped for material, John realizes the misadventures of Marley might be the perfect topic for his first piece. Arnie agrees, and John settles into his new position. Marley continues to wreak havoc on the household, providing John with a wealth of material for his column, which becomes a hit with readers and helps increase the newspaper's circulation. Jenny becomes pregnant, but loses the baby early in her first trimester. She and John travel to Ireland for a belated honeymoon, leaving the rambunctious dog in the care of a young woman who finds him impossible to control, especially during the frequent thunderstorms that plague the area. Soon after returning from their vacation, Jenny discovers she is pregnant again, and this time she delivers a healthy boy, Patrick. When she has a second son, Connor, she opts to give up her job and become a stay-at-home mom, prompting John to take on a daily column for a pay increase. Due to the crime rate, the couple decides to move to a larger house in the safer neighborhood of Boca Raton, where Marley delights in swimming in the backyard pool.
Although she denies she is experiencing postpartum depression
Postpartum depression
Postpartum depression , also called postnatal depression, is a form of clinical depression which can affect women, and less frequently men, typically after childbirth. Studies report prevalence rates among women from 5% to 25%, but methodological differences among the studies make the actual...
, Jenny exhibits all the symptoms, including a growing impatience with Marley and John, who asks Sebastian to care for the dog when Jenny insists they give him away. She quickly comes to realize he has become an indispensable part of the family and agrees he can stay. Sebastian accepts a job for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
and moves away. A few years later, John and Jenny welcome a daughter, Colleen, to their family.
John celebrates his 40th birthday. Increasingly disenchanted with his job, he decides to accept a position as a reporter with The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
with Jenny's blessing, and the family moves to a farm in rural Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. John soon realizes that he is a better columnist than reporter and pitches the column idea to his editor. Life is idyllic until the aging Marley begins to show signs of arthritis and deafness. An attack of gastric dilatation volvulus almost kills him, but he recovers. When a second attack occurs, it becomes clear surgery will not help him, and Marley is euthanized
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
with John at his side. The family pay their last respects to their beloved pet as they bury him beneath a tree in their front yard.
Cast
- Owen WilsonOwen WilsonOwen Cunningham Wilson is an American actor and writer, known for his roles in the films The Haunting, The Royal Tenenbaums, Zoolander, Meet the Parents, Wedding Crashers, You, Me and Dupree, Bottle Rocket, the Cars series, The Darjeeling Limited, Marley & Me, Midnight in Paris, Shanghai Noon,...
as John GroganJohn Grogan (journalist)John Grogan is an American journalist and non-fiction writer. His memoir Marley & Me was a best-selling book about his family's dog Marley.- Career :... - Jennifer AnistonJennifer AnistonJennifer Joanna Aniston is an American actress, film director, and producer, best known for her role as Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends, a role which earned her an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.Aniston has also enjoyed a successful film career,...
as Jenny Grogan - Eric DaneEric DaneEric Dane is an American actor. After appearing in television roles throughout the 1990s and 2000s, he became known for playing Dr...
as Sebastian Tunney - Alan ArkinAlan ArkinAlan Wolf Arkin is an American actor, director, musician and singer. He is known for starring in such films as Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Marley & Me, and...
as Arnie Klein - Haley HudsonHaley HudsonHaley Kaye Hudson is an American actress from Chicago, Illinois.-Filmography:-External links:...
as Debbie - Haley BennettHaley BennettHaley Bennett is an American singer and actress.She will star in the new FX series Outlaw Country with Luke Grimes and Mary Steenburgen.-Life and career:...
as Lisa - Kathleen TurnerKathleen TurnerMary Kathleen Turner is an American actress. She came to fame during the 1980s, after roles in the Hollywood films Body Heat, Peggy Sue Got Married, Romancing the Stone, The War of the Roses, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Prizzi's Honor...
as Ms. Kornblut - Nathan GambleNathan GambleNathan Gamble is an American child actor who made his feature film debut in Babel , for which he was nominated for a 2007 Young Artist Award....
as Patrick Grogan (Age 10) - Bryce RobinsonBryce RobinsonBryce Robinson is an American child actor.An Albuquerque, New Mexico native, Robinson began his career at age 6, in 2006. He has had various roles in television shows and movies, including portraying Connor Rowan on the series October Road and a 7-year-old Patrick Grogan in the film Marley & Me...
as Patrick Grogan (Age 7) - Dylan Henry as Patrick Grogan (Age 3)
- Finley Jacobsen as Conor Grogan (Age 8)
- Ben Hyland as Conor Grogan (Age 5)
- Lucy Merriam as Colleen Grogan
Production
Because the film covers 14 years in the life of the dog, 22 different yellow labradors played the part of Marley (as revealed in the special feature Finding Marley on the DVD).The film was shot on location in Florida's West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood
Hollywood, Florida
-Demographics:As of 2000, there were 59,673 households out of which 24.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.5% were married couples living together, 11.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 42.2% were non-families. 34.4% of all households were made up of...
, Miami and Dolphin Stadium
Dolphin Stadium
Sun Life Stadium is an American football stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, a suburb of Miami. It is the home stadium of the Miami Dolphins National Football League team, and the University of Miami Hurricanes football team. It also hosts the Orange Bowl, an annual college football bowl game. It...
, in addition to Philadelphia and West Chester
West Chester, Pennsylvania
The Borough of West Chester is the county seat of Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 18,461 at the 2010 census.Valley Forge, the Brandywine Battlefield, Longwood Gardens, Marsh Creek State Park, and other historical attractions are near West Chester...
in Pennsylvania. The Irish honeymoon scenes were shot in and around Ballynahinch Castle, Connemara, Ireland.
The film's score was composed by Theodore Shapiro
Theodore Shapiro
Dr. Theodore Shapiro, MD, is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in New York, where he is a professor emeritus in psychiatry and pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medical College and the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic...
, who previously had worked with director Frankel on The Devil Wears Prada
The Devil Wears Prada (film)
The Devil Wears Prada is a 2006 comedy-drama film, a loose screen adaptation of Lauren Weisberger's 2003 novel of the same name. It stars Anne Hathaway as Andrea Sachs, a recent college graduate who goes to New York City and gets a job as a co-assistant to powerful and demanding fashion magazine...
. He recorded it with the Hollywood Studio Symphony
Hollywood Studio Symphony
The Hollywood Studio Symphony is the credited name of the symphony orchestra behind many major soundtracks, including The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Sucker Punch, Jurassic Park 3, Last Samurai, Pirates of the Caribbean, We Are Marshall, Spider-Man 2, Lost and The...
at the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
.
Dave Barry
Dave Barry
David "Dave" Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author and columnist, who wrote a nationally syndicated humor column for The Miami Herald from 1983 to 2005. He has also written numerous books of humor and parody, as well as comedic novels.-Biography:Barry was born in Armonk, New York,...
, Grogan's fellow South Florida humor columnist, makes an uncredited cameo as a guest at the surprise party celebrating Grogan's 40th birthday.
Critical reception
Marley & Me received mixed to positive reviews. The film maintains a 61% fresh rating on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
and a 53% positive rating on Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
.
Todd McCarthy of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
said the film is "as broad and obvious as it could be, but delivers on its own terms thanks to sparky chemistry between its sunny blond stars, Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston, and the unabashed emotion-milking of the final reel. Fox has a winner here, likely to be irresistible to almost everyone but cats ... Animated and emotionally accessible, Aniston comes off better here than in most of her feature films, and Wilson spars well with her, even if, in the film's weaker moments, he shows he's on less certain ground with earnest material than he is with straight-faced impertinence."
Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
observed that "seldom does a studio release feature so little drama - and not much comedy either, other than when the dog clowns around . . . [W]hatever Marley wants to be about - the challenges of marriage or the balancing act between career and family - gets subsumed by pet tricks. Dog lovers won't care, and that basically is the audience for the film. From Fox's standpoint, it may be enough . . . Marley & Me is a warm and fuzzy family movie, but you do wish that at least once someone would upstage the dog."
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
called the film "a cheerful family movie" and added, "Wilson and Aniston demonstrate why they are gifted comic actors. They have a relationship that's not too sitcomish
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
, not too sentimental, mostly smart and realistic", whilst Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
graded the film A-, calling it "the single most endearing and authentic movie about the human–canine connection in decades. As directed by David Frankel, though, it's also something more: a disarmingly enjoyable, wholehearted comic vision of the happy messiness of family life."
Steve Persall of the St. Petersburg Times
St. Petersburg Times
The St. Petersburg Times is a United States newspaper. It is one of two major publications serving the Tampa Bay Area, the other being The Tampa Tribune, which the Times tops in both circulation and readership. Based in St...
was also very positive, graded the film B and commenting, "Marley & Me practically leaps at viewers like a pound puppy seeking affection, and darn if it doesn't deserve some . . . Things could get mushier or sillier, but Frankel and screenwriters Scott Frank and Don Roos — who usually handle grittier material — decline to play the easy, crowd-pleasing game. Their faith in Grogan's simple tale of loyalty among people and pets is unique, and it pays off . . . [It] isn't extraordinary cinema, but it relates to everyday people in the audience in a way that few movies do without being dull."
Walter Addiego of the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
said, "this love letter to man's best friend will make dog fanciers roll over and do tricks. It's so warmhearted, you'll want to run out and hug the nearest big, sloppy mutt." The praise continued with Carrie Rickey of the Philadelphia Inquirer awarding the film three out of four stars and saying, "Marley and Me operates on the assumption that happiness is a warm tongue bath. And those who endorse this belief will enjoy this shaggy dog story . . . The anecdotal structure does not make for a gripping movie. For one thing, there's no conflict, unless you count the tension between a guy and his untrainable pooch. Yet Marley boasts animal magnetism . . . Mawkish? Sometimes. But often very funny and occasionally very moving."
The film had its bad reviews though, with Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
calling it "an imperfect, messy and sometimes trying film that has moments of genuine sweetness and humor sprinkled in between the saccharine and the sadness."
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw is a British writer and film critic. He was educated at Cambridge University, where he was President of Footlights.Bradshaw is a film critic for The Guardian...
of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
was unimpressed, awarding the film one out of five stars and commenting, "the relentless gooey yuckiness and fatuous stereotyping in this weepy feelbad comedy gave me the film critic's equivalent of a boiling hot nose," while Philip French
Philip French
Philip French is a British film critic and former radio producer.French, the son of an insurance salesman, was educated at the direct grant Bristol Grammar School, read Law at Oxford University. and post graduate study in Journalism at Indiana University, Bloomington on a scholarship.He has been...
of The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
said, "the one redeeming feature is the presence as Wilson's editor of that great deadpan, put-on artist Alan Arkin, a comedian who can do a double-take without moving his head." Further criticism came from Colm Andrew of the Manx Independent
Manx Independent
The Manx Independent is a tabloid weekly newspaper in the Isle of Man. It is published every Friday.It is owned by Isle of Man Newspapers, which is now part of Johnston Press....
who said that "Marley himself is surprisingly one-dimensional" and the ending was over-emotional, going "for the heart-wrenching kind which will always provoke a response, but does so with absolutely no grace".
Marley & Me was placed #5 in a poll of "20 movies that make men cry".
Box office
The film opened on 3,480 screens in the US and Canada on December 25, 2008. It grossed $14.75 million on its first day of release, setting the record for the best Christmas Day box office take ever by surpassing the previous high of $10.2 million achieved by AliAli (film)
Ali is a 2001 American biographical film directed by Michael Mann. The film tells the story of boxing icon Muhammad Ali, played by Will Smith, from 1964 to 1974 featuring his capture as of the heavyweight title from Sonny Liston , his conversion to Islam, criticism of the Vietnam War, banishment...
in 2001. It earned a total of $51.7 million over the four-day weekend and placed #1 at the box office, a position it maintained for two weeks. As of August 13, 2009, it had grossed $143,153,751 in the US and $99,563,362 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $242,717,113.
Accolades
| Year | Award | Category | Recipients & Nominees | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | BMI Film & TV Awards | BMI Film Music Award | Theodore Shapiro Theodore Shapiro (composer) Theodore Shapiro is an American composer.Shapiro was born in Washington, D.C. He is best known for his film scores, particularly for the comedies State and Main, 13 Going on 30, Along Came Polly, The Devil Wears Prada, Fun with Dick and Jane, Idiocracy, You, Me and Dupree, Wet Hot American Summer,... |
|
| Kids' Choice Awards 2009 Kids' Choice Awards Nickelodeon's 22nd Annual Kids' Choice Awards were held on March 28, 2009 at 8 p.m. on the Nell and John Wooden Court of Pauley Pavilion. Dwayne Johnson hosted this awards show which lasted for more than one and half hours. Voting commenced on March 2, 2009. Performers and presenters have been... |
Blimp Award | Jennifer Aniston Jennifer Aniston Jennifer Joanna Aniston is an American actress, film director, and producer, best known for her role as Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends, a role which earned her an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.Aniston has also enjoyed a successful film career,... |
||
| Teen Choice Award | Choice Movie: Bromantic Comedy | |||
| Choice Movie Actress: Comedy | Jennifer Aniston Jennifer Aniston Jennifer Joanna Aniston is an American actress, film director, and producer, best known for her role as Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends, a role which earned her an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.Aniston has also enjoyed a successful film career,... |
|||
| Choice Movie Liplock | Owen Wilson Owen Wilson Owen Cunningham Wilson is an American actor and writer, known for his roles in the films The Haunting, The Royal Tenenbaums, Zoolander, Meet the Parents, Wedding Crashers, You, Me and Dupree, Bottle Rocket, the Cars series, The Darjeeling Limited, Marley & Me, Midnight in Paris, Shanghai Noon,... & Clyde |
|||
Home media
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is the home video distribution arm of the 20th Century Fox film studio. It was established in 1976 as Magnetic Video Corporation, and later as 20th Century Fox Video, CBS/Fox Video and FoxVideo, Inc....
released the film on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
on March 31, 2009. Viewers have the option of a single disc or a two-disc set called the Bad Dog Edition. The film is in anamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen, when applied to DVD manufacture, is a video process that horizontally squeezes a widescreen image so that it can be stored in a standard 4:3 aspect ratio DVD image frame. Compatible playback equipment can then re-expand the horizontal dimension to show the original widescreen...
format with audio tracks in English, French, and Spanish and subtitles in English and Spanish. Bonus features on the two-disc set include Finding Marley, Breaking the Golden Rule, On Set with Marley: Dog of All Trades, Animal Adoption, When Not to Pee, How Many Takes, a gag reel, and the Purina Dog Chow Video Hall of Fame and Marley & Me video contest finalists. The DVD has sold a total of 3,514,154 copies generating $61.41 million in sales revenue.
A prequel to the movie, Marley & Me: The Puppy Years, was released direct-to-video
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
on June 1, 2011.