We Bought a Zoo (2011)

Allow me to get this out of the way: Cameron Crowe is one of my favorite cinematic storytellers. Even when the guy makes a movie that's not so well received by the filmic community, I find it still manages to connect with me on a somewhat personal level. I consider Say Anything, Jerry Maguire, and Almost Famous to be opulent representations of what Crowe is capable of as a writer and director. When I first heard word of a movie inspired by the true story of a widower who buys and restores a neglected old zoo, I was ready to give it a typical 'pass' and be on my way. Learning that the movie was helmed by Cameron Crowe, however, forced me to reevaluate my prejudice and categorize We Bought a Zoo as a 'must see.'

Like I mentioned, We Bought a Zoo is inspired by the real-life memoirs of Benjamin Mee, here portrayed by the talented Mr. Ripley himself, Matt Damon. At the start of the movie, we learn that Ben's wife has passed away due to an illness leaving him to raise a 7 year old girl, Rosie (Maggie Elizabeth Jones), and a 14 year old boy, Dylan (Colin Ford). Mr. Mee is still in mourning and has trouble visiting any of the places that remind him of his late wife. When his son Dylan is expelled from school for stealing, Ben takes it as an opportunity to get a fresh start somewhere else. This leads him to buy a rundown zoo. Much to the protest of his older brother Duncan (Thomas Haden Church), Ben moves into the zoo with his son and daughter and invests all of his money to get it up and running by the coming summer, the most profitable time of year for zoos. One of the major obstacles is getting the place up to approval by the hard-ass zoo inspector Will Ferris (John Michael Higgins), but the lead zookeeper Kelly Foster (Scarlett Johansson) and her staff, which includes her 13 year old cousin Lily (Elle Fanning), seem up to the task.

On the surface, We Bought a Zoo might seem pretty forgettable. Movies where animals are the focus can come across as nauseatingly sentimental if not all out terrible. For me with We Bought a Zoo, I believe the intended focus is the Mee family over the animals. The zoo is mostly a catalyst/metaphor for the necessary healing given the loss of the wife/mother. This movie can be overtly sentimental, but I think it worked well enough. I believe Cameron Crowe knows how to tell an uplifting story with at least a somewhat healthy dose of sincerity. The movie is cliched, but at the heart of it is a story about a family striving to overcome chaos by throwing themselves into something outlandish. The score by Sigur Rós' Jónsi can pull at the heartstings a bit too. Overall, I recommend We Bought a Zoo if you like watching a feel good movie once in awhile.