Marley and Me

Spoiler alert: If you are yet to see Marley and Me, you may not wish to read on.

Marley and Me was a surprisingly poignant when I saw it tonight.

The film, directed by David Frankel (director of The Devil Wears Prada), is a heart-tugging and emotionally appealing tale of a pair of journalists John (Owen Wilson) and Jennifer Grogan (Jennifer Aniston) who buy a dog called Marley.

Marley is a welcome gift from John to wife Jennifer to take her mind off of starting a family while he concentrates on becoming a successful columnist for a newspaper. But once the couple do want to start a family, Marley starts to become an increasingly disruptive hazard as Jennifer tries to bring up three children.

I was given the impression beforehand by a flat-mate of mine who studies films that it was far from an Oscar candidate, but, with that in mind, I thought it achieved its purpose with great success.

Its purpose was clearly to really pull at the heart-strings and it did that very well, perhaps so much so that it does not quite have that much replayable value, so I probably will not be buying the DVD.

But it was far from all doom and gloom. There were plenty of bits to laugh at and lots of cute comical moments which only animals can achieve.

Dog lovers will love this film for the personal connection they can have with it, but others may find it too sentimental and too draped in doggy love. But at least it focuses on the dog more than the children. It's a difficult task for film-makers to avoid making children quite annoying and the children who feature in this are a little and there is one particular scene with a baby crying which almost made my ears bleed. Again, though, it achieved the purpose of showing the tough time which Jennifer was having at the time.

Marley and Me also came with some originality and featured some quirky diary-telling scenes which added to the comedy.

As a journalist and a dog owner, I was into this film and found it quite sentimental, but people who do not have those in common with it could find little which appeals to them beyond the trailor. It has at least one fan though.