john grogan Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Review: Marley & Me
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Theatrical Reviews », 20th Century Fox », Family Films »
I can't vouch for John Grogan's 2005 best-selling memoir, Marley & Me, in which owning a yellow lab helped the journalist (Owen Wilson) and his wife (Jennifer Aniston) tolerate any number of trials and tribulations that came their way -- many of which could be chalked up to the carnage-prone canine himself. I suspect that, unlike their on-screen counterparts, the Grogans actually showed some indications of aging after thirteen years and three kids. I doubt that John had a perpetual bachelor of a best bud (Eric Dane) who lingered around to both knock and envy his marriage with convenient doses of sarcasm and handsomeness. I question that the couple could own a picturesque Pennsylvania estate on just one reporter's salary. But I'm fairly sure that both the book and the film shared a common goal -- to make its audience sit, stay, laugh, cry, and then get on with their lives -- and at those modest aspirations, the movie version pretty much succeeds.
From Page to Screen: 'Marley & Me'
Filed under: Comedy », New Releases », From Page to Screen »
I read the last hundred pages of Marley & Me at the counter of a neighborhood diner. Waiters and busboys and cooks milled around in front of me; fellow customers chomped on burgers to my left and my right. It was with around forty pages to go that I had the mortifying realization that I was crying. Sitting there in full view of what seemed at that moment to be all of San Francisco, reading a bright red book with a Labrador retriever puppy on the cover, tears streamed from my eyes.
Now, I won't try to sell you on the idea that Marley & Me is a great book. I can't even, in good conscience, recommend it as a "good book," which is what makes my teary diner incident so embarrassing. It's a sappy, sometimes shameless, thoroughly unremarkable memoir, consisting mostly of strained attempts to extract life lessons from mischievous-dog anecdotes. But there's something in it that pushes a certain button in those of us who melt at the sight of a grinning, tail-wagging canine. You know who you are. You may have wept watching My Dog Skip.
A Strange, Lovely Teaser for 'Marley & Me'
Filed under: Comedy », 20th Century Fox », Trailers and Clips »
I'm all for teaser trailers that reveal very little, especially as an alternative to the Robert Zemeckis school of trailers meant, apparently, to replace the finished film. And while I'm deeply skeptical of Marley & Me, an adaptation of local Philly journalist John Grogan's sappy man-and-his-dog memoir, I love the teaser that Fox unveiled today on the official website for the Christmas release. The reason I like it so much, I think, is that it played a trick on me. I heard the Chariots on Fire theme, saw the slow motion images, concluded that the labrador puppy and Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston's happy couple were triumphantly running toward one another, and kind of rolled my eyes. But then I thought, wait, that doesn't make sense -- they're clearly running in the same direction along the beach in the separate shots. Then it dawned on me; I watched the thing again, saw Aniston's concerned expression and the empty leash in Wilson's hand, and laughed out loud. Clever stuff.
The movie is directed by David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada) and -- on the bright side -- written by Scott Frank (The Lookout, Minority Report). It's the first work Owen Wilson's done since recovering from last summer's horrifying suicide attempt.
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