We Bought a Zoo

Director: Cameron Crowe
Cast: Matt Damon, Thomas Haden Church, Patrick Fugit and Scarlett Johansson
Releasing in cinemas: 26 December 2011
Rated: M

Cameron Crowe, like most directors who have been around for a while, has had his fair share of hits and misses. Say Anything, Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous fall squarely into the first category, while Vanilla Sky and Elizabethtown languish in the latter group. In fact the disappointing reception of Elizabethtown rocked Crowe’s confidence so much that he hasn’t made a film since. That is until now. We Bought A Zoo not only breaks his creative drought but clearly demonstrates that the former rock journalist turned director is back on track.
 
Loosely based on real events, the film stars Matt Damon as Benjamin Mee an adventure journalist raising his two children on his own after the recent death of his wife from cancer.  When his 14-year-old son Dylan (Colin Ford) is expelled from school, Mee decides it’s time for a fresh start.  He sells their home in the LA suburbs and buys a broken down country house in the hills. A dwelling, it has to be said, that clearly mirrors the fragile state of his own life.  But there’s a catch.  The house is attached to an equally dilapidated zoo and while his 7-year-old daughter Rosie (Maggie Elizabeth Jones) is delighted by the turn of events Dylan thinks his father has lost his mind.
 
Mee soon discovers however that in addition to the swag of exotic animals he’s inherited, he’s also now responsible for a number of staff that have kept the place going by sheer guts and determination.  Leading them is the gorgeous but no-nonsense zookeeper Kelly Foster (Scarlett Johansson) who lets Mee know in no uncertain terms exactly what must be done if they are to get the zoo up to scratch so that it can pass inspection and be reopened to the public.  The staff are sceptical of Mee’s ability to make it work, especially Kelly but what Mee lacks in zoological knowledge he more than makes up for in determination.   But as the problems and bills mount he begins to question whether he is in over his head.  His brother (the hilarious Thomas Haden Church) an accountant doesn’t help. He thinks Benjamin has lost his marbles and urges him to sell before he loses anything else.
 
We Bought a Zoo is not trying to reinvent the wheel and while some of the obstacles Mee faces are fairly predictable and the happy outcome a forgone conclusion it’s Crowe’s skill as a storyteller that keeps the tale engaging and interesting along the way. In someone else's less capable hands it could easily have become an overly sentimental and entirely forgettable drama. Having said that it’s not without its problems.  Still despite the odd cliché and the need to appeal to as wide an audience as possible in these difficult financial times Crowe and co-writer Aline Brosh McKenna (27 Dresses, The Devil Wears Prada) have managed to take a fairly predictable story and turn it into one that is emotionally layered and extremely satisfying to watch.
 
From the moment Crowe burst onto the scene with Say Anything (1989) he demonstrated that he understood cinema.  That is, in nine out of ten cases if the audience doesn’t relate to the characters they won’t relate to the film.  There’s no fear of that here. Partly what raises We Bought a Zoo above many films in the genre is that not only are the characters easy to relate to but they have also been fully realised. From the bigger named stars like Johansson and Haden Church to the cute as a button daughter played by Jones to Patrick Fugit who has very little to say in the film (he played the director in Almost Famous). Each and every one of them has been fleshed out and in the process made entirely believable.
 
But if there is a gong to be given, it belongs to Damon.  Not only is he an incredibly versatile actor who can switch between drama, action and comedy without breaking a sweat (Jason Bourne, Stuck on You and The Informant! are just a few examples of his eclectic range) but even when he’s tasked with playing an incredibly sympathetic character like Benjamin Mee – something he could probably do in his sleep no doubt – the actor brings a sharp intelligence and a heartfelt authenticity to his performance. In other words he never rests on his laurels. He never just goes through the acting motions.
 
Shot by Rodrigo Prieto, the cinematographer behind Brokeback Mountain and Amores Perros and with a soundtrack that boasts songs from Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Tom Petty.

We Bought a Zoo is a deceptively simple film.  At first glance you could write it off as this little feel-good drama but in fact it packs an emotional punch that takes you by surprise.  Of course that’s the beauty of a masterful filmmaker like Crowe.  

Gaynor Flynn