Climbing Higher Pictures

With an early sneak preview across the country yesterday, is We Bought A Zoo the kind of word of mouth movie that will turn into a runaway hit? From director Cameron Crowe, whose last feature Elizabethtown wasn’t exactly a major moneymaker, this one seemed like a bit of a long-shot. But does the studio know better than the pundits? Is this ray of sunshine just what our country needs right now?

We Bought A Zoo Review

By Ryan Hamelin

Movie Grade: A-

If you’ve ever seen a Cameron Crowe film, you know the man has an ear for music, and a wonderful sensibility when it comes to integrating songs into his narrative. With We Bought A Zoo, probably his most grounded and natural film to date, we see the evolution of that talent, an original score composed of songs by Sigur Ros frontman Jonsi, or known tracks from the band itself, that builds an emotional foundation on which the rest of the film can sit. With a rougher handheld aesthetic than his past films and a series of wonderful supporting performances, Crowe brings everything you’ve ever loved about his work together in one movie, while ditching a lot of the thinner yet flashier visual material that defined projects like Vanilla Sky.

Lets start off with Matt Damon. He’s been getting a bit of a ho-hum rap lately, as pictures like The Adjustment Bureau, Hereafter, and Green Zone haven’t made much of a dent at the box office. The truth is, he’s getting older, and the parts he’s been taking haven’t been aging as gracefully. I would say that at this point in his life and career, Benjamin Mee is the perfect role for him. A father figure who never really spent enough time at home and went off on one wild expedition after another finds himself struggling through the toughest challenge of his adult life, and Damon gives him a warmth and resolve that makes the character instantly relatable. It helps that both of the actors playing his children are phenomenal, particularly the youngest girl, who steals almost every scene she’s in. We also meet Thomas Hayden Church as Benjamin’s accountant brother, who has most of the best one-liners of the movie, serving as a grounding and smart-ass voice of reason in the midst of the chaos that is the life of the family.

Once we hit the zoo, we get some great work by Elle Fanning, fresh off of Super 8, as an awkward home-schooled animal expert with a crush on Benjamin’s son. Scarlett Johansson is Kelly Foster, who seems, at first glance, to be the token hot love interest thrown in by an unscrupulous producer trying to sell tickets. She ends up being the exact opposite, and I must say this is the most awake I’ve seen Johansson look in a movie in quite some time. She’s really good in the part, and her interactions with Damon have an honesty and candor to them that humanize her in a way we haven’t really seen. The rest of the cast of characters that populate this world all ring true, and if you’re worried about sentimentality, this film doesn’t overdo it, preferring to keep the emotions in check until they’re at their most powerful.

I have to say, I don’t remember a single moment of We Bought A Zoo when I didn’t have a smile on my face. The film achieves its vision incredibly well, without the merest hint of artifice or construction showing through. When a movie is this well made, you don’t have to try hard to let yourself get carried away by it, and when the raft arrived at its destination, I was just as happy with being back on dry land as I was with the journey that had preceded it. Is it a perfect film? No. The editing in particular pulled it down a bit, letting the overall runtime and pacing lag on occasion, but the film worked so well, I never found myself checking my watch. I’d highly recommend this film on the merits of genuine storytelling, not to mention the warmth that resonates from every frame. You can’t help but feel good, and it was exactly what I needed.