Marley & Me (film)

Marley & Me is a 2008 American comedy-drama film about the titular dog, Marley. It was directed by David Frankel and the screenplay by Scott Frank and Don Roos is based on the memoir of the same name by John Grogan. The film stars Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston as Marley's owners. Marley & Me was released in the United States and Canada on December 25, 2008, and set a record for the largest Christmas Day box office ever with $14.75 million in ticket sales. The film was followed by a 2011 direct-to-video prequel, Marley & Me: The Puppy Years.
== Plot ==
Newlyweds John and Jenny Grogan escape the brutal Michigan winters and relocate to South Florida, each landing reporter jobs at competing newspapers. At The Palm Beach Post, Jenny immediately receives prominent front-page assignments, while at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, John finds himself writing obituaries and mundane two-paragraph news articles.
When John senses Jenny is contemplating motherhood, his friend and co-worker, Sebastian Tunney, suggests adopting a dog to test their readiness to raise a family. They choose a yellow Labrador retriever puppy that John names Marley (after Bob Marley).
After a year, he grows into a big dog and soon proves to be incorrigible, forcing John and Jenny to enroll him in a dog obedience program run by a woman named Ms. Kornblut. Unfortunately, Marley refuses to obey commands and when she blows her whistle, he tackles her and humps her leg, prompting her to kick him out of her class. When they tried to take Marley to get neutered, he tried to escape the car onto a busy road, almost getting him roadkilled.
Editor Arnie Klein offers John a twice-weekly column writing anything he likes. Initially stumped for ideas, John realizes that Marley's misadventures might be the perfect topic for his first column. Arnie loves it, and Marley's continual wreaking havoc on the household provides John with a wealth of material. The column proves popular with readers and eventually helps double the paper's circulation. Meanwhile, Jenny miscarries early in her first trimester, leaving them devastated.
Jenny and John have a belated honeymoon in Ireland, leaving Marley at home, under a young woman's care. She cannot control him well, and John and Jenny return to a damaged house.
Soon after, Jenny discovers she's pregnant and nine months later, she delivers a healthy boy, Patrick. When a second son, Conor, arrives, Jenny opts to be a stay-at-home mom, so John takes on a daily column for a doubled salary. With their family growing and concerned over the neighborhood's crime rate, they move to a larger house in Boca Raton, where Marley delights in swimming in the backyard pool.
Jenny exhibits postpartum depression symptoms, stressed with raising two small children and becoming increasingly impatient and irritable with Marley and also John. Sebastian agrees to take Marley for a few days after Jenny, upset and angry, demands John find him a new home. Jenny quickly realizes Marley is an indispensable part of the family. A few years and nine months later they have a daughter, Colleen.
After turning 40, and envious when Sebastian is hired by The New York Times, John grows dissatisfied with being a columnist. With Jenny's blessing, he accepts a reporter job with The Philadelphia Inquirer, and the family moves to a farm in rural Pennsylvania. John soon realizes he is a better columnist than a reporter and pitches a column idea to his editor.
Life is idyllic until the aging Marley suffers a near-fatal intestinal disorder. He recovers, but, too old for corrective surgery, suffers a second attack later. Marley is euthanized with John at his side. The family pays their last respects to Marley as they bury him beneath a tree in their front yard.
== Cast ==
* Owen Wilson as John Grogan
* Jennifer Aniston as Jennifer "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
* Ann Dowd as Dr. Platt
* Nathan Gamble as Patrick Grogan (Age 10)
** Bryce Robinson as Patrick Grogan (Age 7)
** Dylan Henry as Patrick Grogan (Age 3)
* Finley Jacobsen as Conor Grogan (Age 8)
** Ben Hyland as Conor Grogan (Age 5)
* Lucy Merriam as Colleen Grogan (Age 5)
== Production ==
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).
The film was shot on location in Florida's West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Miami, and Dolphin Stadium, in addition to Philadelphia and West Chester in Pennsylvania. The Irish honeymoon scenes were shot in and around Ballynahinch Castle, Connemara, County Galway, Ireland.
The film's score was composed by Theodore Shapiro, who previously had worked with director Frankel on The Devil Wears Prada. He recorded it with the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century Fox.
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.
== Soundtrack ==
All tracks are written by Theodore Shapiro
No. 	Title 	Length
1. 	"Parents of Two" 	1:49
2. 	"Off and Running" 	0:51
3. 	"The Hardest Job" 	1:33
4. 	"Walking the Plank" 	1:30
5. 	"Obedience School" 	1:19
6. 	"Leg Love" 	1:05
7. 	"Two Year Montage" 	3:23
8. 	"Moving to Boca" 	1:53
9. 	"First Sleepless Night"	2:05
10. 	"When It's Time" 	1:10
11. 	"Off to Ireland" 	1:53
12. 	"Dog Farm" 	1:19
13. 	"Boy and Dog" 	1:19
14. 	"Lost in the Rain" 	0:43
15. 	"Employed" 	1:07
16. 	"All Good Dogs" 	0:55
17. 	"Evil With a Dog Face" 	0:45
18. 	"Labor Pains" 	1:18
19. 	"No Regular Dog" 	1:27
20. 	"Snow" 	1:03
21. 	"Jen Says Goodbye" 	1:50
22. 	"It All Runs Together" 	4:03
23. 	"Heading Home" 	2:15
24. 	"Marley & Me" 	3:32
Total length:	Total length: 	39:48
=== Additional music of Marley & Me ===
No.	Title 	Music 	Length
1. 	"Shiny Happy People" 	R.E.M. 	
2. 	"One Love" 	Bob Marley 	
3. 	"Deception" 	Tech-i-L.A. 	
4. 	"Rockin' the Suburbs (Over the Hedge Version)"	Ben Folds 	
5. 	"Only Wanna Be With You" 	Hootie and the Blowfish	
6. 	"Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" 	Us3 	
7. 	"Lithium" 	Bruce Lash 	
8. 	"Rather Be" 	The Verve 	
9. 	"Lucky Man" 	The Verve 	
10.	"River Song" 	Dennis Wilson 	
Category:2008 films
Category:20th Century Fox films
Category:Regency Enterprises films