Energetic Labrador Marley is adopted by recently-married journalists John Grogan (Owen Wilson) and Jenny (Jennifer Aniston) in lieu of starting a family in their new Florida home. Director David Frankel slickly brings to screen life this entertainingly calculating — including an ending liable to flood cinemas with tears — adaptation of the real-life Grogan’s bestselling memoir about “the worst dog in the world” and his 13 years as the pet of a couple going through the tribulations of married life and child-raising.

Wilson and Aniston are competent, if unstretched, and Alan Arkin provides much-needed acid as Wilson’s cynical editor. But inevitably the 22 dogs playing Marley through the years steal the show.