Bring Tissues for Marley & Me

Walk into Marley & Me not expecting to be wowed, and it’s an easy film to watch, Claudia Puig writes in USA Today. Unfortunately, “it’s just as easy to forget.” The writers deftly pull dog-lovers’ heartstrings, but the story itself is ordinary and chemistry lacking between “blah” Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson. It's a film “satisfying only to pet-porn junkies,” Jim Ridley writes in the Village Voice.

Dog-lover Jessica Reaves disagrees in the Chicago Tribune, saying only “those who have no souls” could reject lovable Marley. The rest “will laugh delightedly for the first hour and spend the remaining hour weeping openly,” she writes, adding that Aniston handles her character with “good grace.” Adds Tom Long in the Detroit News: “Everything you could want in a holiday movie.” (More Marley & Me stories.)