We Bought a Zoo

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.

Wristcutters: A Love Story

Wristcutters: A Love Story is an awfully optimistic film about suicide. I think that it almost goes with out saying that a film set in a limbo world where people go after they kill themselves is not going to be everyone's cup of tea. Wristcutters has an interesting and unique take on the afterlife. It is not as far out there or depressing as the subject matter would suggest. The main characters in the film are essentially on a road trip of self-discovery. Even though the dead characters are not able to smile, they still seem hopeful and positive. The dreary and washed out colors and the slow pacing of the film gives you time to sit there and wonder how the characters can be so lively when they are dead. Wristcutters is artfully filmed and yet kind of silly. For as quirky as the film feels, there are many scenes that are fairly conventional. My favorite thing about this film and the reason that I gave this film a chance is the dust-bunny on the floor in the opening scene. The dust-bunny provides some enjoyable dark humor. And I enjoyed Wristcutters; it is both familiar and different.