Friday, May 15, 2009

Marley and Me didn't do it for me

J was home from school today (long story) and we ended up watching the movie Marley and Me on Pay Per View. J has been wanting to see this movie for a while, so I just gave in. I'd heard it was a little inappropriate, but I figured: what the hell (I'm such a great mother!).

Overall, it was a pretty stupid movie, with a very sad ending (J and I were both bawling our eyes out), but it was the middle that really bothered me. All of a sudden, this silly movie about a couple and a dog who wouldn't behave was turning into a drama about fetal death, and the difficulties of raising small children, and women giving up their careers and having to choose between motherhood and working, and people who don't appear to know about birth control....Whoa! This wasn't the movie I signed up for!

And they didn't deal with these issues well, either.

So Jennifer Aniston (looking great, as usual) is having a sonogram done on her flat yet pregnant belly, and suddenly the technician leaves the room, and the doctor returns, and it's "I'm sorry, the fetus has died, you can try again soon..." and suddenly I'm having to explain THAT to J.

Soon they (Jennifer and gorgeous hubby Owen Wilson) have one child, and then pretty quickly another (birth control, anyone?) and then Jennifer is crazed with having a toddler and a baby and a dog who misbehaves and she has decided to leave her job as a reporter but running the house is driving her crazy, and... and....

And then they decide to stop having babies, and immediately have another baby. Hello?

There was one part in particular that drove me mad. Jennifer is holding the baby and the other one is crying and the dog is crazy, and she says to her husband, "I chose this, I wanted to stay home, why do I hate it so much?" or something along those lines. And he's like... "I dunno."Great social commentary, guys. Deep.

I guess I just wish they hadn't tried to delve into these sorts of issues in a movie that is supposed to be light and funny (or light and furry...). It felt very uneven to me.

Did anyone else feel this way about this film?


deb said...

it was just wrong having J. A. as the wife from the start.
I cried too of course.. but the story-- wild, just how did they get that million dollar home ?
I had some unexpected baby talks after as well.
Movies seem to be more about surprises and it makes me crazy.
Mom of 5 ... expert at nothing

Anonymous said...

M was home from school and she wanted to watch this on Pay Per View so I told her I had heard the ending was incredibly sad but she still wanted to watch it. (I was the one totally teared up at the end.) I kept coming in and out but I agree with your comments, to the point I said to M, "Don't they believe in birth control?" and she said, "They're married." I said, "What's that got to do with it?!" This movie was totally not light and furry (I like that descriptor) but I had read some review that prepared me and it was fine for M. Can't believe they were advertising this as a family comedy during Christmas week -- there must have been lots of confused kids and pissed off parents in the theaters!