Film

Perhaps we need to modify the old show business dictum about never working with animals (or children); it’s okay as long as their fur matches your hair. Golden-locked Aniston and straw-maned Wilson (“the butterscotch stallion”) seem content to play second banana to a Labrador retriever (well, a series of them, from pup to aged hound) in this alternately goofy and tender adaptation of journalist John Grogan’s best-selling memoir about “the world’s worst dog.”

The intentional comedy is what you’d expect: Dog poo and off-the-leash shenanigans feature prominently. But thankfully, screenwriters Scott Frank and Don Roos keep the jokes relatively in check (a few lines of dialogue suggest that a running joke about leg-humping has been wisely left on the editing-room floor). The unintentional comedy comes from John’s rise from newspaper metro-beat reporter to columnist, which now sounds like a fairy tale (“I’ll double your salary,” offers editor Arkin. Yeah, right).

Marley strikes a surprisingly delicate balance between the wacky humor and a more heartfelt look at how a dog, even a badly behaved one, becomes part of the family. Through work and family crises, Marley—and his penchant for literally chewing the scenery—always remains.