We Bought a Zoo lacked much of anything to blow the audience away. The characters were stereotypical and the performances were adequate. Matt Damon played the single father taking care of two children and dealing with the loss of his wife. He was charming and not too depressing. Scarlett Johansson played the zoo keeper as a fairly asexual person for the majority of the film. So, that was good. Thomas Haden Church was the comic relief and concerned brother. He has a knack for making even the most predictable scripts seem better than what they are. And let’s not forget the animals. The animals were all convincing in their parts. Sadly for a movie about the purchase of a zoo, animals were not a huge focus. It is more of a people movie than an animal movie. Of course, there was one tiger that got highlighted and one Capuchin monkey that made her way into a whole lot of scenes on Patrick Fugit’s shoulder.
The most surprising thing about this straightforward film is that the moody teenage son was not required to do any chores on a broken down zoo that needed as much help as it could get. I mean, the adorable scene stealing daughter was willing to make sandwiches and label them PB and J (with a backwards J for added cuteness), but the boy was allowed to sit around all day drawing pictures. It is hard to believe, but as far as family films go that is nothing new. We Bought a Zoo would fit in great on the Lifetime Movie Network. It is a simple film designed to pull at your heart strings.
Bret Easton Ellis was recently comparing Damon's performance to Clooney's in DESCENDANTS. He said Clooney is no way believable as a parent. However, Damon is a lot more convincing since he's a father of four in real life. This film was indeed very Lifetime-esque. I won't lie though, I did tear up a bit when the tiger died.
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