Suburban love

Marley and Me shows what "happily ever after" looks like | Megan Basham

20th Century Fox

Few major Hollywood offerings focus on life in the suburbs, and when they do, the picture they paint is hardly pretty. Audiences who reside in the family-friendly communities that border metropolitan areas routinely see their lives portrayed as rife with violence, depression, sexual betrayal, and lots and lots of quiet desperation. What they rarely witness on film are the encouragement, pettiness, insecurity, deep love, and profound commitment that are more common features of middle-class American marriage. 

When the screenplay for the best-selling memoir Marley and Me landed in director Dave Frankel's lap, he, along with stars Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson, saw a chance to change that. "We were all excited about the opportunity to be a part of a film that actually shows a happy couple," says Frankel. Aniston adds that the film offers husbands and wives something they rarely see—a romantic comedy about married people. "I really wanted to be in this movie because for once it wasn't the girl trying to get the guy or the guy trying to get the girl and you end the movie when they ride off into the sunset," she says. "It's the sequel to that. And it's funny because real life is funny."