'Marley & Me'

Life isn't ever perfect. The marriage, the kids, the jobs and the pets that come along to fill it up can get messy and difficult. But it is in the muck that we often discover the love and the laughter. And so it is with "Marley & Me "-- an imperfect, messy and sometimes trying film that has moments of geniune sweetness and humor sprinkled in between the saccharine and the sadness.

Adapted from John Grogan's sentimental bestseller, "Marley & Me" is essentially the story of a couple of newlyweds and their crazy dog -- with Grogan played by Owen Wilson, and his wife, Jenny, by Jennifer Aniston (regrettably both go by Jen, which makes it harder than ever to separate the actress from her pop-culture image).

There is a reason the title starts with Marley, who is billed as the world's worst dog. The studio wants to remind us it's his movie. They've got a point, even Wilson and Aniston at their cutest don't have much of a chance opposite an adorable out-of-control yellow Labrador played by a succession of 22 exceptionally insistent scene-stealers that take him from puppyhood to the gray-whiskered bittersweetness of old age.

All of which would be fine if "Marley & Me" was a canine comedy with a little romance on the side. It isn't. There is a dark center to the movie with difficult adult questions on the table the dog is chewing the legs off of -- marriage, parenting, life and loss, served up in big emotional packages, which, by the way, are not featured with big red bows in the ads.

There is always a risk when turning a book into a movie that the filmmakers -- in this case director David Frankel and writers Scott Frank and Don Roos -- will find themselves with too much story. And when you have too much story and two major stars, well three, something's gotta give, or at least it should. In "Marley & Me," too often it doesn't. There are career issues, house issues, when to start a family issues, kid issues, should Jen be a stay-at-home mom issues, the old neighborhood's decaying issues, the new neighborhood is pretentious issues, and always, always, always the Marley issues. Whew, it's exhausting, we need a flow chart.

Like the book, the film is intent on plucking those heartstrings at every turn starting with the opening pastoral scene of a boy and his dog ambling along -- a bucolic moment summarily destroyed by Marley on a dead run with Grogan trailing in his wake. Which is pretty much the way it goes for the rest of the movie. Dog with a heart of gold wrecks havoc; the increasingly not-so-happy couple tries to repair the collateral damage. Which, of course, is a not-so-subtle metaphor for life.