Jen (Aniston) and John (Wilson) think they're picking the cutest puppy of the lot, until they get him home..

Cast: Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston, Eric Dane, Kathleen Turner
Director: David Frankel
Screenwriters: Scott Frank, Don Roos, John Grogan
Rating: PG

Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston star in this movie adaptation of John Grogan’s sentimental bestseller, Marley & Me, the story of a couple muddling through life trying to juggle the demands of marriage, parenthood and career, compounded with the antics of the family’s adored Labrador.

We first meet John Grogan (Owen Wilson) and wife Jen (Jennifer Aniston) on the night of their Michigan wedding. As a spring snowstorm sprinkles down outside, the newly weds decide to pack-up shop and move to the warmer climes of West Palm Beach, Florida.

When Jen’s biological clock begins to tick, tick, tick, John’s best pal, Sebastian (super slick Eric Dane) suggests buying a puppy to waylay Jen’s desire to have a baby.

Enter Marley, the couple’s incredibly adorable, completely out-of-control yellow Labrador. Marley is played by a progression of twenty-two dogs that chart his chaos, carnage and impossible loveliness from puppyhood through to old age. From the get-go Marley is billed as the world’s worst dog, wreaking havoc on everything he touches and accordingly turning the Grogan’s world upside down. He chews, dismantles and hurtles his way through John and Jen’s life invariably forgiven by the couple with one look into those sloppy, brown, doggy eyes. Director David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada) angles overtime to shoot every saccharine, sweet ‘aahh’ moment possible.

Meantime we witness the Grogans (who unlike Marley, never age in the course of thirteen years) making their way through life in glorious messiness. John, a wannabe hard news reporter reluctantly agrees with his South Florida Sun editor (Alan Arkin) to write a local column that becomes a running commentary of Marley’s mishaps. By this time Jen, grappling with exhaustion and suggested post-natal depression after the birth of her third child, has given up her own once successful career as a journalist so she can stay home and do the mom thing full-time.

Simultaneously, John lopes around envying his free-wheeling bachelor best pal Sebastian, whose career is on meteoric trajectory to fame at the New York Times. The couple collide in their individual frustrations of married life getting in the way of a fantastic career.

Marley & Me tries to address the big questions of parenthood, marriage and identity interwoven with the ongoing canine comedy. While Aniston fits comfortably into Jen’s character, this is not her film. As a couple, Aniston and Wilson have little on-screen chemistry and the film’s real emotion is provided through Marley. Wilson is at his best when he’s with Marley, often trying to reconcile himself with the choices he’s made or desperately trying to hold it together when the dog gets sick.

This is Marley’s movie and he carries the audience through the parts where the film seems to lose its way. The overall result is a sweet film with moments of genuine emotion and real humour, dusted with perhaps a touch too much saccharine.

Special Features: 19 deleted scenes with optional director’s commentary, Finding Marley featurette, Breaking the Golden Rule featurette, On Set with Marley: Dog of all Trades featurette, Animal Adoption featurette, When Not to Pee featurette, gag reel, Dog Training trivia track

By Thea Garland

Marley and Me (three disc Bad Dog edition) is out on DVD and Blu-ray 6th July 2009.