THE STORY
As the snow falls on their wedding night, newlyweds John and Jenny Grogan decide to leave the harsh winters of Michigan behind and head south to begin their new lives in warm and sunny Florida. They move to West Palm Beach, quickly obtain jobs as journalist at competing local newspapers and buy their first home in a modest, mixed neighborhood. As their lives begin to unfold, we follow them through the struggles of navigating through a new marriage, the anxiety of trying to begin their careers and the life changing process of deciding to start a family. However, after Jenny realizes she can’t even keep a house plant alive, she begins to panic and think that maybe she won’t make it as a parent. Unsure of if they are even ready to start a family, John confesses his fears to his friend Sebastian who comes up with the perfect solution. He suggests that John get Jenny a puppy to delay her desire to have a baby.

The heart of the story begins when John surprises Jenny one day by bringing her to a rescue to adopt a new dog. Surrounded by tons of yellow Labrador puppies, John and Jenny happily play with them, trying to figure out which will be the one they take home. Jenny, always a sucker for a bargain, falls in love with one puppy in particular after finding out that he’s on “clearance”. “Clearance dog”, as she initially refers to the pup, turns out to be the lucky one and is later re-named Marley. “We bring home this cute little twelve pound yellow Labrador and he quickly grows into a hundred-pound steamroller of unbridled energy and he turns our lives completely upside down as we’re trying to figure out what our lives as a married couple will be.” says John Grogan, author of the book Marley & Me.

Marley, the loveable ball of energy, changes the lives of the Grogan’s in a way they never expected. The first sign of a problem comes when John picks up Jenny at the airport, leaving his new puppy home alone. When the Grogan’s return home, they find that their adorable puppy has just destroyed their garage, chewing up everything in sight…and so the destruction begins.

More challenges present themselves when John and Jenny decide to enroll Marley in a dog obedience class since he is so unruly. During his tenure in the Grogan home, Marley successfully managed to eat Jenny’s brand new gold necklace given to her by John, more dog food than the Grogan’s could fathom one dog could consume and basically anything within chomping distance.

Just when Marley starts to become a little more than the Grogan’s bargained for, he proves his unconditional love for John and Jenny when the unthinkable happens during Jenny’s first pregnancy. After a routine trip the obstetrician, John and Jenny get the shocking news that she has lost their first child. The couple is devastated and upon returning home, Marley knows something is wrong and silently comforts Jenny with an intimate love and understanding that only a dog could have for its owner.

John and Jenny manage to bounce back and as John Grogan calls it, “the luck of the Irish” proved to be on the couple’s side when Jenny successfully gets pregnant again with Patrick and later gives birth to Conor and Colleen over the next few years. Through all of the ups and downs of juggling a career and children, one constant in John and Jenny’s marriage is Marley.

Marley is there to provide comfort during the tough times; he’s there chasing down the attacker when a neighbor of the Grogan’s is mugged and stabbed in her driveway; and he’s there when all three Grogan children are born. Despite all of his anxiety issues and the exorbitant amount of money he’s cost the Grogan in home repair and replacement of valuables, Marley forever changes the lives of the Grogan family. “Marley & Me” is the comedic account of the disastrous yet loveable dog Marley, and the love, companionship and chaos that Marley bestows upon the Grogan household.

VISUAL REVIEW



























CONTINUED IN THE SPIRITUAL SECTION