“This is exactly what we’re looking for.” Ever dream about owning your very own personal zoo? That is what Benjamin Mee and his family stumbled on while looking for a new home to live in. Loosely based on a true story comes a family drama sprinkled with a bit of comedy that’s appealing to the older and younger audiences. It’s a manufactured story with some eye-rolling story lines that resulted in a bland and boring movie. It tries to merge together a bunch of different marketable ideas but forgets to actually be wholesome and entertaining.
To cope with his passing wife and keep his family from falling apart, Benjamin Mee (Matt Damon) decided that it was time for a change. He’s an impulsive adventurer who pushes his own dream onto his family. But “it’s a good dream with cool animals and some great people too.” His 7 year-old Rosie (Maggie Elizabeth Jones) is all for it with her cute voice and adorable expressions but Dylan (Colin Ford), Benjamin’s teenage boy, is a trouble maker. Luckily, there are obvious love interests for both Dylan and Benjamin in the form of the lead zoo operator Kelly Foster (Scarlett Johansson) and her 13 year-old hippie niece Lily Miska (Elle Fanning) who makes sandwiches and smiles. Once you’re introduced to that scenario, you know you’re trapped.
are you looking at my butt? are YOU looking at my butt?
You would think that a movie about a zoo would highlight the hundreds of exotic and endangered species they claim to have but between scene transitions with only quick glimpses of animals, just three animals are really showcased. Buster the Bear, Solomon the Lion, and Spar – the 17 year-old Tiger. I mean, if you’re going to choose a couple animals animals, it might as well be a lion, a tiger, and bear, oh my! The interactions between the animals and characters are pretty limited and even those are pretty docile. You’re not going to see any Siegfried and Roy type tricks here. But if your kids are Rosie’s age, they’ll have a blast like Maggie seemed to have on set.
This is as close as Matt Damon is getting to that tiger
Matt Damon carried this soft story with his Matt Damon charm. You can’t help but root for him throughout his troubled times. He played a great father who had no idea what to do with his family or his zoo. Scarlett Johansson, Thomas Haden Church (who played Benjamin’s analytical brother), and John Michael Higgins (who was the obnoxious zoo inspector, Walter Ferris) all played their supporting roles beautifully. Director Cameron Crowe definitely knows how to pull great performances from people but apparently not animals. I also enjoyed how he mixed the music and noises of city life in contrast to the farm life as well as juggling Benjamin’s own angst with his past and learning to cope with the present and future. There are a lot of strong themes that make this a good family movie…if only it had more heart.
This image makes it look like a TV Family Movie...because it is
It seemed like there was a lot of footage left on the cutting room floor and by trying to make this movie more mass appealing and broad, it lost a lot of the heart and power. They stuck a formula to the finished product and what resulted was just another cheesy main character in too deep/out of his league movie. It had awesome animals, cute little girl, a couple of love stories, and a drunken Irishman out for revenge but it all didn’t come together as I thought it would. They’re marketing this as a comedy drama but it’s really a drama with a couple of laughs. It’ll be great for the older crowd and younger crowd but anybody in the middle will probably just get bored and realize how loosely this movie is based on the actual counterparts.
Tags: Cameron Crowe, Colin Ford, Elle Fanning, John Michael Higgins, Maggie Elizabeth Jones, Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Thomas Haden Church, We Bought A Zoo
Matthew Fong created advancescreenings.com and is the lead contributor. He watches every type of movie and will try almost anything twice. You can follow him on twitter here: @matthewfong
