Marley and Me and Me

After seeing Marley and Me last night, I'm pretty sure I am not emotionally capable of having a dog. I have a feeling this post might contain spoilers just because I can't talk about the movie without talking about what happens in the movie. If you've read the book you know what's going to happen.

I guess I steered clear from the book because I probably read the description and had the foresight to see myself sobbing while reading it and valued my wellbeing enough not to do that to myself so knowingly.

I did however see the movie. Mostly because others wanted to and I thought it seemed like it was going to be cute. And it was cute. Don't get me wrong. It's actually a GREAT movie. Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston are perfect. We were all talking afterward how natural they seemed and it didn't seem like acting at all. This is Owen's first movie post suicide attempt and seeing him play with the kids was enough to bring me to tears, not to mention the carefully crafted relationship he seemed to really have with the dogs. (and you could tell when they changed dogs, especially one time, but you get past it.)

The other thing was that this screening was open to the public. This is where it went wrong because I guess a lot of people saw a puppy on the poster and assumed it was a kid movie. For some reason the studio didn't set them straight as they walked their little lambs into the emotional slaughter that was this movie.

As Tory said as we were leaving, Marley and Me puts Old Yeller to shame. Seriously. Not a kid movie. And again, not just because of the dog, but because there are other things that happen in the movie that we actually heard little kids asking about. Things little kids shouldn't have to know about.

It opens on Christmas Day. And it is a good movie. Gerrad and Tory said it followed the book perfectly. Gerrad said it's better than most of the award season movies he's seen. (Frost/Nixon and Milk are very much award worthy tho, but I'm just saying that's how good it is.) And it's very well put together. Just bring hankies and tissues. And no kids.

As we were walking through the mall to leave, we saw a woman with a couple of dogs and were immediately like, "oh my gosh, does she not know what's going to happen?" I was so upset (read HEAVING sobs) after two hours of watching a pretend relationship with a dog that I can't imagine forging my own relationship with a dog and having it reach its natural conclusion after like 14 years.

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I see the The Curious Case of Benjamin Button tonight, as I'm covering the premiere on Monday night. I had been hoping to get through a day without crying but I guess that probably won't happen as I heard this one's a tear jerker too.

It's also almost 3 hours. Which means we're gonna be late to the Aimee Mann Christmas Show. But hopefully we'll get there in time for me to hear some "O Holy Night" and feel a little better about everything.

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I realize I haven't posted an Ireland blog. I promise you I have notes and the best of intentions. This week has not been a great one and next week is looking to be worse. (Seriously. My boss actually said "Have a good weekend. You'll need it." as we left the daily meeting on Friday. Awesome.) So maybe I'll put it together if I have time tomorrow.