We Bought A Zoo

We Bought A Zoo – After the death of his wife, Benjamin Mee struggles to manage the grief he and his children are suffering. Deciding to move them out of the family home, he discovers a local zoo in need of an owner and, despite knowing nothing about zoo management, buys it. Wanting to open the zoo to the public, the few staff who have stayed help him but having to sink so much money into it makes the dream increasingly seem out of reach.

We Bought A Zoo (2011) – Director: Cameron Crowe

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33226273

Rating: PG

Running Length: 124 mins

Starring: Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Colin Ford

Genre: Comedy, Drama

REVIEW: WE BOUGHT A ZOO

Loosely based on the memoirs of Benjamin Mee, ‘We Bought a Zoo’ follows the Mee family as they embark on an adventure to bring a local zoo back to its former glory. Benjamin (Matt Damon) lost his wife some months before and decides to pick the family up, take them away from all the memories and problems that have surfaced since and give them an adventure to focus on. The zoo staff are likeable but mostly rather bland with the exception of the almost permanently drunk Scot, MacCreedy (Angus MacFadyen) who has no personality other than being intoxicated. Kelly (Scarlett Johansson) is pleasant enough but has little to do other than be supportive. Although she does occasionally challenge Benjamin, she barely does anything more than give him a little nudge in the right direction.

This isn’t high drama, the conflicts are cliché and the ending is predictable but it is an enjoyable albeit twee family movie. It is fun to see Matt Damon in a far different role to his usual tough guy/Jason Bourne personas and he does well at playing a family man who often doesn’t know what he’s doing. Colin Ford (who plays tearaway teen, Dylan) enables the audience to empathise with him despite his typical rebellious teenage antics.

While ‘We Bought A Zoo’ isn’t going to win any awards for innovative story telling, it is a comforting movie that doesn’t demand much from you.

 CONTENT: IS ‘WE BOUGHT A ZOO’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

Benjamin’s son, Dylan, struggles to deal with the death of his mother and acts out at school. Benjamin is brought in by the head teacher and shown some artwork that Dylan has done. It is of a man who has almost been decapitated. The picture is quite graphic with the man’s eyes wide and his tongue sticking out, there is blood drawn around the wound; this picture is a strong indicator of Dylan’s dark thoughts during his difficult time.

Benjamin comes across a book full of Dylan’s artwork which are all scary images of death and demons.

One of the zookeepers, Kelly, talks about how a tiger kills its prey saying they ‘bite you, take your pulse, reposition those suckers then boom! There goes your carotid!’

The zoo workers often relax at a local bar and drink alcohol. One is regularly seen to be drunk and throws darts at a photograph of a man who betrayed him years ago. He rants ‘I’ll kill him! I’ll cut off his head with a sword! I’ll kill him!’

Benjamin’s 7 year old daughter, Rosie, asks him if her mum ‘hurt’ before she died. He takes a moment to decide what he’s going to say and then reassures her. She is happy with his answer and doesn’t go back to this question.

Dylan accidentally allows a box full of snakes to escape and the following day, they are all outside the house. He becomes angry and purposefully kicks one of the snakes into the air before storming off. He is not reprimanded for this but Kelly tells Benjamin ‘I did not appreciate the way he kicked that garter snake!’

When a notoriously hard to impress inspector, Ferris, visits and seems unhappy with the zoo, one of the zookeepers tells Kelly ‘He lusts you!’ to which she replies ‘I’m not taking one for the team if that’s what you’re getting at!’. This is done in a jovial way and is not taken seriously.

The tensions between Dylan and Benjamin come to a head with a big, shouting argument. They both have their say and it ends up being quite touching. Later, Benjamin looks at photos of his wife and the family and remember the happy time they had together. This is a bittersweet moment with Benjamin smiling at the memories but misses his wife terribly.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘WE BOUGHT A ZOO’ FOR KIDS?

Fun but predictable, ‘We Bought A Zoo’ won’t be for everyone but kids are likely to enjoy the light drama and easy to handle conflicts. Due to some bad language and the difficult to broach subject of a parent’s death, we recommend this movie for kids aged 6 and over.

• Violence: 1/5 (dialogue based threats to harm)
• Emotional Distress: 3/5 (all members of the Mee family struggle with the loss of their wife/mother. An animal is very ill and although the best thing for it is to have it euthanised, some characters have a difficult time in letting go of it)
• Fear Factor: 0/5
• Sexual Content: 1/5
• Bad Language: 2/5 (Moderate bad language is infrequent but often shouted so could be repeatable. 7 year old Rosie calls a character a ‘dick’ but admits that she doesn’t know what it means)
• Dialogue: 1/5
• Other Notes: Deals with themes of the loss of a loved one, moving on after a loss, making difficult decisions for your family, sticking together, working hard, talking through your problems and making the best of a hard situation.

Words by Laura Record