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Based on the trailers, "Marley & Me" seems like the perfect comeback vehicle for Owen Wilson. After his reported suicide attempt 15 months ago, a charmer about a cute dog and the family that loves him would make any agent or publicist's dream of a positive return to the spotlight.

That was before they read the script, of course.

Adapted by noted screenwriters Scott Frank ("The Lookout") and Don Roos ("The Opposite of Sex"), "Marley" stays true to the dramatic nature of John Grogan's book, which is more realistic than most are expecting. 20th Century Fox certainly needs a hit, and "Marley" may be the biggest "cheat" (as it's called around town) the industry has seen in years. The movie has some funny moments, but it's not the cutesy family flick the TV spots portray it to be. However, that didn't stop its stars, including Wilson, from selling its universal appeal. Sort of.

"There were so many dogs playing Marley that it was like doing a Vietnam movie, where you didn't want to get too close," Wilson says. "You didn't want to bond because you knew that that dog might not be there the next day."

The plethora of dogs that appeared in the flick aside, more disconcerting for Wilson were a series of tough scenes he had to get through toward the end of the film.

"It was funny. I knew those scenes were coming up and I was kinda nervous, like 'Gosh, I hope I feel something, so they don't have to get out those fake tears.' The glycerin was on stand-by. But I didn't really need it, because as soon as I saw Copper, the dog who played the old man Marley, it was hard not to start getting kind of emotional," Wilson admits. "What was nice about the movie was that the situations didn't ever feel contrived. Everything seemed very relatable, so it wasn't difficult to understand. It was like, 'OK, what he's feeling here makes sense.'"

Considering how similar in age Wilson and Aniston are, and the fact that they live in Los Angeles and broke on the scene around the same time, it's surprising to discover that they didn't know each other before filming began. But Wilson says they clicked during rehearsals.

"We felt like we were on the same page with the way that we felt things should go," Wilson says. "The thing about chemistry, you get along with a person and then if the movie does well, then you had great chemistry."

And if it does really well, you do a sequel. Or, in this case, maybe a prequel.

"Marley & Me" opens nationwide on Dec. 25.