We Bought A Zoo Review

Director: Cameron Crowe

Cast: Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Thomas Haden Church, Elle Fanning, Colin Ford, Maggie Elizabeth Jones, Patrick Fugit

Running time: 124 minutes

Certificate: PG

Synopsis: Set in Southern California, a father moves his young family to the countryside to renovate and re-open a struggling zoo.

Cameron Crowe, the man behind SAY ANYTHING, JERRY MAGUIRE and the glorious ALMOST FAMOUS returns to direct WE BOUGHT A ZOO, a screenplay co-written with Aline Brosh McKenna (THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA). If you are of a nervous disposition and any mention or thought of the words feel-good makes you faint, then you’re definitely in the wrong review.

WE BOUGHT A ZOO is an adaptation from the true memoirs of Benjamin Mee, who in 2006 bought the dilapidated zoo on Dartmoor in Devon, England. Crowe has moved events to Southern California but it follows the same story of Mee (Matt Damon) looking for a fresh start along with 14-year-old son Dylan (played characteristically teenage by Colin Ford) and 7-year-old daughter, Rosie (Maggie Elizabeth Jones), the latter an early scene stealer. Once they’ve moved in, they start to renovate Rosemoor Wildlife Park, with the aid of Kelly (Scarlett Johansson) and additional zoological workers that include ALMOST FAMOUS alumni Patrick Fugit, who has a small monkey as a companion on his back and, in retrospect, this could metaphorically represents the challenges ahead.

It has to be said that WE BOUGHT A ZOO could certainly over-step the sentimentality line but where other films would fall into that trap, an intelligent ensemble cast manages to keep this on the acceptable side of ‘working-against-the-odds’. There are hard times for the characters but there’s a continual underlying positivity about eventual outcomes and when you’re seeing a film with the title WE BOUGHT A ZOO, you should know what you’re getting yourself into.

Matt Damon gives an integral, heartfelt performance as lead character Benjamin Mee, a writer with a young family who is struggling to cope with his wife’s death from Cancer. His relationship with his older son, Dylan, is strained but he wants to give his kids something bigger and better in their lives. Damon’s connection with Scarlett Johansson’s zookeeper-Kelly is honest and sincere. Johansson is genuine and strong enough to fight to keep the zoo alive, there’s warmth between their characters and it invites a lingering possibility of something else between them. It’s also great to see the under-valued Thomas Haden Church back on the big screen. Here he echoes parts of his SIDEWAYS role and he’s perfect as Matt Damon’s on-screen accountant brother, always playing the part of conscience and wittily questioning why running a Zoo is even remotely sane. WE BOUGHT A ZOO is all about sub-plots that run throughout, another is the adolescent relationship between Dylan and country-girl Lily, brilliantly played by rising starlet Elle Fanning ( SUPER 8 ) who shines once again.

Crowe always brings something memorable to the big screen, a man who focuses very intently on individual characterisation and story development with the hope of an optimistic conclusion. I don’t believe this to be a Hollywood cop-out either because Crowe manages to fuse strong performances into a narrative where other film-makers would have fallen short. Throw in an exemplary soundtrack, composed specifically for the film by Jonsi of Sigur Rós, and we see Cameron Crowe on the verge of returning to past glories. WE BOUGHT A ZOO doesn’t hide away from the darkness of real-life but instead chooses to focuses on the human spirit and all those possibilities when you take a chance on something unknown. The feel-good factor may be close to over-flowing but here it has genuine heart, so why should you go and see it? Why not?

    WE BOUGHT A ZOO escapes to UK cinemas on March 16^th