John [Owen Wilson] and Jennifer [Jennifer Aniston] are married and both writers. So they decide to move to Florida for work and life. After the first stage of being married is over and John begins to worry about the impending feeling for Jennifer to ask him for a child he buys her a dog, Marley, to try and delay this problem. Surprisingly it ends up being more work than they expected, especially when it becomes evident that Marley is a dog that is the reincarnation of what I imagine would be the dog that kicks every other dog into the ground in hell.

I think one of the easiest ways to like a movie, is the ability to relate to the characters or the story and unfortunately I cannot here. I’ve never had a dog – I have friends and family with dogs, but not personally – but at the same time I’ve always secretly wanted one. Also, I’ve never been married nor had children so I can’t personally relate to this movie. So it has a lot of work to do for me to like it. Watching some of the trailers closer to the release I started to realize how much it looked like Beethoven which I remember when I was six years old I liked, but I’m sure if I watched it now I will hate it. Another thing working against the movie is that the ending was spoiled for me with these [YOU HAVE BEEN FOREWARNED] billboards that were vandalized that I saw all around the internet.

So with all that said above, I liked this movie a lot. Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston both do exactly what you expect them to. They pull out the stock performance that you’ve seen in everyone of their movies. However, on the acting front – like every other movie I’ve seen him in since Little Miss Sunshine – Alan Arkin does an amazing job as John’s boss, Arnie Klein. Other than those three characters/actors there isn’t anything worth mentioning in that department.

What is best about this movie is the story and each little set piece with Marley. I guess that is exactly what it has to be since the movie is based on a book that was written by John Grogan who for years wrote a column about his experiences with his dog. There are so many moments where Marley is being the adventurous dog who won’t stop and the world is his playground, but the best moments are when John or Jennifer comes home in a really horrible mood and Marley immediately senses this and he acts accordingly and goes and cuddles with them to make them feel better.

For those of you who have seen the movie, read the book or seen the billboards; this paragraph is for you, I won’t be explicit but you may be able to deduce the ending from this one. Now, regarding the ending of this movie, I don’t know what helps the effect of the ending of the movie. As I said, I’ve never had a dog and during the ending of this movie while Owen Wilson was giving his speech a woman to my left was crying it out, while the woman behind me was laughing hysterically. Personally I wanted to shed a theatrical tear because the film earned it and I cared.

So in the end I guess the question everyone wants to know about is “would you recommend it?” The answer is YES, with some conditions. You have to be able to look passed the lead performances, and realize that the star of the show is Marley. If you think this will be a great family movie, you’re wrong [I point back to spoiler billboards if you’re brave or don’t care] but the ending is the only way this movie can end satisfyingly. So if you’re ready for those two things please show up and enjoy a fun story about a married couple enjoy their life with a really great dog.

IMDB says 7.3/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 56%

I say 8.0/10