Starring: Matt Damon, Scarlett Johannson, Thomas Haden Church, Patrick Fugit, Elle Fanning, Colin Ford, Maggie Elizabeth Jones, Angus Macfadyen and John Michael Higgins
Directed By: Cameron Crowe
Screenplay By: Aline Brosh McKenna and Cameron Crowe
Based on the Book by: Benjamin Mee
Produced By: Julie Yorn, Cameron Crowe and Rick Yorn
Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Rating: PG, for language and some thematic elements.
Running Time: Approximately 124 minutes
Website: weboughtazoo.com
Budget: $50 million
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Release Date: December 23, 2011
Life somewhat imitated art for Oscar-winning writer-director Cameron Crowe with the release of his last big screen effort, 2005’s Elizabethtown, a quirky comedy-drama about an industrial designer (a miscast Orlando Bloom) who contemplates suicide after the one-two punch of being fired then being dumped by his girlfriend soon thereafter.
Much like Bloom’s character in the film, Crowe kept a relatively low profile following the film’s disappointing reception with critics and audiences alike. I, for one, found the film to be a densely-plotted, well-written, well-shot, and mostly well-performed hodgepodge that would have been far better served had Crowe not attempted to fit enough material for two or three films into one stand alone effort.
With the release of We Bought A Zoo, the talented wordsmith behind such zeitgeist favorites as Fast Times At Ridgemont High, Say Anything…, Singles, Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous takes the inspirational and quite moving true-life story of British journalist Benjamin Mee (which Mee himself chronicled in the best-selling non-fiction tome “We Bought a Zoo: The Amazing True Story of a Broken-Down Zoo, and the 200 Animals That Changed a Family Forever”) and damn-near Disney-fies it. This is hardly the first time compelling source material has made the leap to the big screen and lost something vital in translation. Over 20 years ago, what started out as a dark, profane, drug-filled tale about a week-long business arrangement between a cold, out-of-town businessman and a vulgar prostitute working the Hollywood streets was recalibrated into a modern-day Cinderella tale. You may have heard of it, a little film with Richard Gere and then-relative newcomer Julia Roberts called Pretty Woman. And there’s plenty more from where that famous example comes from.
In We Bought A Zoo, Benjamin Mee (Matt Damon) has been widowed for six months and his children are dealing with the loss in different ways: his teenage son Dylan (Colin Ford) is acting out and gets expelled from school, and his precocious 7-year-old daughter Rosie (the truly adorable Maggie Elizabeth Jones) is just sad most of the time.
A born adventurer, Benjamin decides to shake things up. He leaves behind the throngs of single moms and desperate housewives in Los Angeles who’ve been circling him for months waiting for the opportunity to pounce and relocates his family to an old, picturesque farmhouse in the country that’s in need of repair. The kicker about their new digs is it’s a part of a now-closed wildlife reserve still populated with 200 animals – exotic, endangered and otherwise.
Besides the animals, the park also comes with a loyal crew of zookeepers headed by Kelly Foster (Scarlett Johannson). Single, hot Kelly is initially skeptical about single, hot Benjamin’s intentions regarding the park. As expected, her concerns are soon alleviated and the mandatory “will they or won‘t they” flirtation begins. And despite his older brother Duncan’s (Thomas Haden Church) repeated warnings, Benjamin has every intention of reopening the reserve in time for the Fourth of July weekend, even with a prickly government inspector (John Michael Higgins) breathing down his neck.
Crowe and co-writer Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada, 27 Dresses) transplant the action from England (where the actual events that inspired the film took place) to Southern California for no apparent reason. We Bought A Zoo is pretty to look at and there are some nice performances, particularly from Damon, Ford and newcomer Jones, but it’s a mostly-bloodless fairy tale that should have been a rousing portrait of a broken family on the mend after a crushing loss.
Considering the amount of time Crowe has been attached to the movie (at least 3 years), it doesn’t play like he’s put his stamp on it. Some might be inclined to say that’s a good thing, but as I said in my Elizabethtown review six years ago, “Second-rate Crowe still beats most of what’s out there,” which is true, only this time around there are any number of damn fine films playing local theaters, and We Bought A Zoo doesn’t even rate as second-rate Crowe. It’s second-rate Disney.
2 stars (out of 5)
