In several scenes, young women in skimpy bikinis and other skin-baring outfits walk or jog along the beachfront. Right up until the very end, loyal Marley goes on teaching Grogan one big life-lesson: the importance of love, unconditional love, the sort of love dogs give you.

Newlyweds John and Jenny Grogan escape the brutal Michigan winters and relocate to South Florida, each landing reporter jobs at competing newspapers.Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson unleash huge laughs as John and Jenny Grogan, a young couple contemplating the decision to start a family. Meanwhile, Jenny announces that she's pregnant, and their family drama unfolds in its tragicomic glory. Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter observed that "seldom does a studio release feature so little drama—and not much comedy either, other than when the dog clowns around .

Dave Barry, Grogan's fellow South Florida humor columnist, makes an uncredited cameo as a guest at the surprise party celebrating Grogan's 40th birthday. Because the film covers 14 years in the life of the dog, 22 different yellow labradors played the part of Marley (as revealed in the special feature Finding Marley on the DVD). They steal a car for a bit of fun, and when they get back, the local IRA chapter sets out to teach them civic responsibility, IRA-style, by breaking one of gang's fingers.

On the other hand, the perpetual single swinger Sebastian appears to hear his youthful choices ringing hollow in later years. Oh, and Jennifer Aniston plays Grogan's wife, competing with Marley for her husband's affection with what seems to me abysmal lack of success.

Please consider upgrading to a Pro account—for less than a couple bucks a month, you’ll get cool additional features like all-time and annual stats pages ( example), the ability to select (and filter by) your favorite streaming services, and no ads!Actually, the new dog, Marley, is a tornado that can’t sit still, won’t stop gnawing on everything of value and seems unfazed by efforts to train him. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. A group of bored Roman Catholic teens from Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom steal cars and joyride around the city, causing havoc among the nearby Protestants and local Irish Republican Army members, all of who are outraged by the youths' nihilism. Content relating to reproduction (getting pregnant, miscarriage, birth control) might be too mature for younger viewers. For one thing, there's no conflict, unless you count the tension between a guy and his untrainable pooch.

But the pursuit is also a struggle, and viewers see how John and Jenny sacrifice to gain the material pleasure that they eventually achieve. By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. He chews up books, boots, chairs, floor tiles, rugs, various undergarments and children’s toys, to name but a few. And hey - couldn't we humans, so hotsy-totsy about our grand position in the chain of being, learn a thing or two from Marley?Walter Addiego of the San Francisco Chronicle said, "this love letter to man's best friend will make dog fanciers roll over and do tricks. With their family growing and concern over the neighborhood's crime rate, they move to a larger house in Boca Raton, where Marley delights in swimming in the backyard pool. But through the relational tugs and pulls of everything from financial woes to a miscarriage, they figure out ways to pull together and support each other. Sebastian agrees to take Marley for a few days after Jenny, upset and angry, demands John find him a new home. They aren't particularly impressed with this lesson and decide that it's the IRA that needs some lessons.