Monday

Last night was spent at the mall again. I must have taken 10 trips to the mall in the last two weeks. We saw the movie "Marley & Me." I had absolutely no expectations for this movie being bad or good, so I was neither disappointed nor pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be OK, or pretty good, with some flaws in the believability. I would like to know what time period the book was written about. As a newspaper reporter/writer in the mid to late 1990s, I know a newspaper writer does not make very much money. The houses this newspaper writer was supposedly able to afford just shocked me. At first, both Marley's owner and his wife both had jobs as writers for newspapers. Then, she stopped working so she could be a stay-at-home mom. Then, his boss doubled his salary. Does that really happen? Since when does any boss generously double a person's salary? Then, they bought a nice house in a nice neighborhood. They were living in Florida. The house had a pool. Then, they bought a beautiful stone, three-story, multi-sectioned, old, dignified, estate-type looking house. Of course, they were not trying to make a living in West Virginia like I was. And it was just a movie, I know. But about building peoples' expectations about making a living and doing well as a newspaper writer? Does that really happen? Does it happen to people, other than to about 20 people, maybe? I don't know. I have my doubts.
Moving on, about the actual plot, I did not like how the movie purposefully told you to become sentimental about the dog, about 10 minutes from the end, after the whole rest of the movie concentrated on what a nuisance the dog was. There was really nothing positive about the dog until it seemed he had reached the end of his life. That's when he was no longer a nuisance, because he did a lot of laying around and seeming affectionate as he no longer had the strength to overwhelm and overpower everyone with his energy and destructiveness. I am no fan of dogs. My parents did have a very nice German shepherd. Here was a typical story like Marley & Me, that many people probably share: the story of a young couple who bought a puppy before they had children. The puppy got huge and provided a lot of levity for the young couple. The couple had children and the dog adjusted. The dog died when the children were ages eight and 10. The children had not become attached to the dog like the parents had. It was very sad for the parents.
What I did like about the movie was the simplicity of the story, and how that simplicity carries over into the characters' everyday lives that everyone can relate to and appreciate. A seemingly normal family has the typical struggles and trite experiences, but the challenges within them are universal and important. Since this movie was based on a book that was either non-fiction, or based on a real-life story, I guess that explains why.