Holy Crap Cameron Crowe
made a film and forgot to tell me! Since the effortlessly enjoyable Almost Famous the man has made so little
of note that I almost thought he had dropped off the planet. Now though he’s
back and doing what he does best, thoughtlessly mangling a supposedly true
story. But unlike Crowe’s autobiographical feature, which was assembled from a
series of booze-addled recollections of his rock journalism career, We Bought a
Zoo is a very different tale and altered for very different reasons.
The story of DIY columnist
Benjamin Mee’s (here played by Matt Damon) decision to buy a zoo in Dartmoor is
one of those real-life stories that sounds nice on paper but likely is not all
that interesting in reality. To rectify this the story is relocated to
Anywhereville, USA and Mee is rewritten as a bereaved father of two looking to
make a fresh start. And you’ll be pleased to learn that the end result is a
story that sounds nice on paper but not all that interesting.
Part of the problem is really a
lack of conflict. Aside from the underrated John Michael Higgins as an
entertainingly odd zoo inspector there’s never any sense that Mee’s insane
gamble won’t pay off and that he won’t be reborn spiritually because of it.
There’s are plenty of scenes which drive home the financial struggles of
getting the zoo operational again but it’s always offset by the uplifting low-angle shots with shafts of sunlight shooting through every frame . That
plus the powerful music and rising choir make everything feel designed to inspire.
It’s a testament to Crowe’s
considerable talent then despite the transparency it works as a feel-good film.
His touch as director and co-writer guarantees competent camerawork, excellent
scoring and the obligatory references to Bob Dylan. All of which serve to
elevate an otherwise flat premise. The real selling point of the film though is
the animals.
Not to disparage We Bought a Zoo’s bipedal cast-members but everytime you feel yourself getting
bored with the trite family squabbles or the dull shots of Damon pouring over
vet bills BLAM a bear escapes or the lock breaks on the lion enclosure. Only
about three of the animals in the entire zoo are allowed to make an impression
but each time they serve to drive home the reality of running a zoo in ways
that are funny, genuinely heartfelt and pretty damn uplifting.
It’s possible that the lack of
focus on the animals is because all the nuances have gone into the humans.
Scarlett Johansen shines as lead zookeeper Kelly and mouthpiece of the zoo;
worn-out, frustrated and pretty cynical about the idea of someone coming to
save them. Angus MacFayden has a hilarious
turn as a boarderline alcoholic carpenter and oh hey Crowe decided to throw the
kid from Almost Famous a paycheck!
That was nice of him.
The core cast of Damon and the
two kids pretty much serve their purpose. The little girl is adorable and the
teenage boy’s an obnoxious brat so your tolerance for either will likely be
wearing thin around the third act. The film is far too married to its positive tone to explore the loss of Mee’s wife with any real depth or intensity and its
presence makes Damon’s already stilted chemistry with Johansen feel outright artificial.
At the end of the day We Bought a Zoo does everything it sets
out to do, to tell a fairly simple story with precious little heart but heart
all the same. It’s the style rather than the substance that takes a paper-thin
idea, bogs it down with a mixed bag of characters and still manages to elevate
itself into something genuinely powerful.
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