We Bought A Zoo

Deb 8 Me 7

I had little idea what this was about, I heard it was loosely based on reality and I figured a zoo was in it (brain surgeon). Sure enough, there was a zoo in it and all the creatures you’d expect to see in such a place, but the movie was about much better things than exotic critters. In fact, it was right up my alley, and dealt with life and death issues, their repercussions and how people deal with them. I liked it.

First off the flaws. Snakes don’t travel in packs. Second, the nemesis was right out of Ferris Bueller. His character reduced the film to a cartoon and it had to climb its way back to credibility (which it did). There were a couple other weirdnesses, but they were easily overlooked.

In the positive department, it was a positive movie. It avoided obvious Hollywood clichés and used less obvious ones. Matt Damon was excellent again, he constantly reminded me of (writer) Bruce Watson throughout the movie, which was fine. And then there’s these kid actors again. There’s a young man of 14ish and a little girl who had the cute shit down. There was the cast of underdog misfits, Bad News Bears run a zoo, and budding romance in the face of mourning and healing, it worked for the most part. What I thought was going to be a trite little look at animals turned out to have some depth and dealt with real human issues without gore, chase scenes or mutilations. It proves it is possible to make a good movie with just a good story.