Marley & Me (movie)

Marley & Me
Directed by	David Frankle
Written by	Scott Frank Don Roos Novel: John Grogan
Produced by	Gil Netter Karen Rosenfelt
Starring	Owen Wilson Jennifer Aniston Eric Dane Kathleen Turner Alan Arkin
Cinematography	Florian Ballhaus
Edited by	Mark Livolsi
Music by	Theodore Shapiro
Distributed by	20th Century Fox (USA)
Release date	December 25, 2008
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$242,717,113 (worldwide)

Marley & Me is a 2008 American comedy-drama movie that is produced by Gil Netter and Karen Rosenfeltand was directed by David Frankle. The movie opened in theaters on December 25, 2008 and set a record for the largest Christmas Day box office open ever with $14.75 million in ticket sales.

Plot

This movie is based on the novel and is about a couple, John (Owen Wilson) and Jenny Grogan (Jennifer Aniston) who just get married and move from Michigan to Florida. They get jobs at a local newspaper and Jenny wants a baby so their co-worker, Sebastian Tunney (Eric Dane) suggest they get a puppy before they have a baby to see if they will be good parents. They go shopping for puppies and come across a litter of new born yellow Labrador Retrievers, They decide to chose Marley and Marley immediately becomes a handful so they take her to dog trainer Ms. Kornblut (Kathleen Turner) and when Marley doesn't listen to her commands she expels her from her dog class.

Editor Arnie Klein (Alan Arkin) offers John a twice-weekly column in which he can discuss things that are fun and not fun about everyday living. After having writer's block, John notices the misadventures of Marley and thought that it might be the perfect topic for his first piece. Arnie agrees, and John settles into his new position.

Marley continues to give John new material for his column by causing havoc on the house and readers loved it. Jenny becomes pregnant but the baby dies in her first trimester so they decide to take a belated honeymoon to Ireland and leave Marley with a dog sitter and becomes a handful for the dog sitter because of the thunderstorms that are around there. Upon returning from their honeymoon Jenny finds that she is pregnant again and gives birth to a girl, Liv. Jenny also has a second child Connor and quits her job to become a stay-at-home mom and John take the daily column at work to increase their paycheck. With the crime rate near their home, John and Jenny move to a house in a safer neighbourhood in Boca Raton. Jenny is experiencing all the signs of postpartum depression though she denies it and grows impatient of Marley and John and thinks they should give Marley away while John asks Sebastian to take care of her but Jenny realizes that Marley has become an indispensable part of the family and decides that she can stay. Sebastian takes a job in New York for The New York Times and moves. A couple years later Jenny has a third child a daughter, Colleen. The family moves to Pennsylvania when John takes a job for The Philadelphia Inquirer with Jenny's approval. Life is good until Marley begins to have arthritis and deafness and develops an attack of gastric dilatation volvulus though she survives it she has another attack and it was clear that surgery would not help the situation, John has Marley euthanized while beside her. The family bury Marley under a tree in their front yard after paying their last respects to her.

Cast

• Owen Wilson as John Grogan
• Jennifer Aniston as Jenny Grogan
• Eric Dane as Sebastian Tunney
• Alan Arkin as Arnie Klein
• Haley Hudson as Debbie
• Haley Bennett as Lisa
• Kathleen Turner as Ms. Kornblut
• Nat Gamble as Liv Grogan (age 10)
• Bryce Robinson as Liv Grogan (age 7)
• Maddie Henry as Liv Grogan (age 3)
• Finley Jacobsen as Conor Grogan (age 8)
• Benjamin "Ben" Hyland as Conor Grogan (age 5)
• Adrian Merriam as Colleen Grogan

Ratings

Marley & Me got mostly positive reviews from reviewers:

• Rotten Tomatoes - 62%
• Metacritic - 53%
• Roger Ebert - 3/5

Other websites

• Marley & Me's Official website
• Marley & Me on IMDb
• Marley & Me at AllMovie