Animal lovers will go bow wow wow for Marley & Me, David Frankel's comedy-drama about one man’s journey of self-discovery with a mischievous labrador, based on the memoir by John Grogan. Adapted for the screen by Scott Frank and Don Roos, the film collars decent laughs with uproarious interludes as the four-legged central character runs amok in sunny Florida.

But the script plumbs surprising emotional depths too, eliciting strong performances from lead stars Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston as a young couple struggling to juggle professional and parental responsibilities. Audiences should cram every available pocket with handkerchiefs because Frankel’s film is a modern day Old Yeller, following the relationship between man and his best friend to its natural conclusion. Forget a polite, covert dab to the eyes. Grown men will be reduced to sobbing and snivelling wrecks by the picture’s final frames, which remain the right side of cloying.

Newlyweds John and Jenny Grogan (Wilson, Aniston) move from Michigan to the subtropical climate of West Palm Beach to pursue parallel careers as journalists and settle down. When fellow reporter Sebastian (Eric Dane) plants a seed of worry in John’s mind about his wife wanting a baby, the husband decides to dodge the bullet by buying Jenny a child substitute: a yellow labrador pup called Marley.

The tiny, adorable bundle of fun soon grows into 100lb of uncontrollable energy, chewing up anything and everything in John and Jenny’s home, including their clothes and furniture. An expensive necklace has to work its way through the dog’s digestive tract before Jenny can wear it. The couple labels the pet “the world’s worst dog” and hopes a trainer (Kathleen Turner) might be able to instil some discipline.

Inevitably, Marley wreaks havoc. “Leg humping is like a virus: once it starts, it takes control of the group!” lambasts the trainer, quickly expelling the labrador from her group. The experiences compel John to put pen to paper and write a popular column in the local newspaper, to the delight of his cranky editor (Alan Arkin).

Marley & Me wrings every chuckle and tear out of its familiar dramatic set-ups. Wilson and Aniston demonstrate impeccable timing but their roles also test their acting mettle as they are driven to the brink of exhaustion by their efforts to raise a family.

Originally sentenced to seven years at the age of 19 for a bungled armed robbery, Charles Bronson is now one of the UK’s most notorious and violent inmates of our overcrowded prison system. He has spent 30 of his 34 years behind bars in solitary confinement, and has not been allowed to mix with other prisoners since 1999, currently languishing in HM Prison Wakefield from where he continues to produce award-winning poetry and art.

Celebrated Danish filmmaker, Nicolas Winding Refn attempts to make sense of this tortured soul in Bronson, a psychedelic and controversial biopic that pummels the senses into weary submission.

How do you get inside the mind of a man who has been certified as clinically insane, and would you even want to?

Stylistic quirks are on display here in unflinching and disturbing scenes of violence within the prison walls as the hulking, shaven-headed Bronson (Tom Hardy) readies himself for a beating.

The film’s strongest asset is the leading man, who has bulked up for the role and loses himself in the character, delivering an uncompromising and fearless performance. He doesn’t hold back for an instant, going full frontal as he weathers a kicking from prison guards, or turning to the camera to share some thought which has burst into his battered and bruised head.