Marley & Me

The Devil Wears Prada director David Frankel's light comedy drama - based on a best-selling autobiography - stars Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston as a pair of married journalists who welcome a truly unruly dog into their lives. Relocating to Florida, newlyweds John and Jenny Grogan (Wilson and Aniston) end up working for rival newspapers, and it's soon obvious that Jenny has landed the more high-profile job. But when she starts to become broody, one of John's colleagues suggests they see how they cope with a puppy before trying for a baby. John duly picks a cute yellow Labrador retriever as a gift for his spouse. It's soon clear their acquisition is a double-edged sword: he's an untrainably anarchic source of destruction; but he also gives John the material for a wry newspaper column, which greatly increases his standing (and the paper's readership). The film follows the trajectory of the Grogans' marriage, through good times and bad, and the stuff of everyday life, with the dog providing comic relief and the leads turning in convincing, heart-warming performances.