For a drama about a young couple starting a family, there’s “Revolutionary Road” and there’s “Marley & Me.” The kids exist on the sidelines in both looks at East Coast marriages. “Marley & Me” is the lighter one starring Owen Wilson as the title’s “Me,” a newspaper writer named John married to Jenny, played by Jennifer Aniston. Marley is played by twenty-two Labrador retrievers of various ages. More than a pet, Marley does double duty as a plot line to follow the first fourteen years of married life for the Grogans. They arrive in South Florida as newlyweds from snowy Michigan. They are reporters for local dailies, and acquire Marley as a pup, which supplies John with material when he is promoted to a columnist slot. There’s a splendid montage of Marley adventures narrated by John from his popular column. Children come along and Jenny quits her job. They get a nicer house. Marley loves the pool. Then John gets a job in Philadelphia where he can return to reporting. There are three kids now and Marley is getting old. Wilson and Aniston make an appealing pair. What’s most interesting about this “dog picture” is that Marley is left alone to be a dog, with far less personality than Lassie or other four-legged stars offering cute reaction shots and trained to do adorable tricks. Marley is merely a great dog, greatly loved by his owners and their children. This is a love story warmed by comedy. Director David Frankel is joined by his cinematographer and editor from his earlier “The Devil Wears Prada.” Screenwriters Scott Frank and Donald Roos draw from the non-fiction book penned by the real John Grogan about his dog Marley, his wife Jenny, their three kids and his newspaper jobs in Florida and Philadelphia, despite the film’s disclaimer that everyone and everything is “fictitious” and that any resemblances are “purely coincidental.” With Sebastian Tunney, Alan Arkin, Eric Dane and Kathleen Turner. 95m. (Bill Stamets)
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