By: debbie lynn elias
A furry, feel good film like WE BOUGHT A ZOO is not what one would expect from the edgier Cameron Crowe, the man behind films like Vanilla Sky, Almost Famous and Jerry Maguire. But on closer examination, this is exactly what I want to see from Crowe as he is masterful when it comes to telling stories based on personal experience. Almost Famous, based on his experiences writing for Rolling Stone magazine, set the tone for the personalization of his storytelling. Here, while the personal experience is that of Benjamin Mee, whose memoirs, “We Bought A Zoo: The Amazing True Story of a Broken-Down Zoo and the 200 Animals That Changed A Family Forever”, is the basis for the film, the sentiment and emotion is universal – joy, love of life and of course, the fun and love of animals and childhood fantasies of zoos. After all, didn’t you want to live in a zoo as a kid? Using Mee’s memoir as a foundation, Crowe and co-screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna move the story from England to Southern California, take some literary license, and stuff it full of heart-tugging elements guaranteed to melt the hardest of hearts, and, belieing the sage wisdom of W.C. Fields, has Crowe working with kids AND animals!
A widower with a teenaged son, Dylan, and 7-year old Rosie, Benjamin Mee is doing the best he can to move forward as a family, some six months after his wifefs death from cancer. A writer, Ben has spent his life on the edge of adventure, travelling the world over, experiencing one adrenalin rush after another and then writing about it. But times change, and with the call for “print” writers diminishing, Ben is pulled from excitement and adventure of the world and assigned more mundane story topics. What he doesnft realize is that the greatest adventure of all, that of raising his own children, is in his hands. Rosie is the apple of Ben’s eye. Much older and wiser than her 7-years, she assumes the role of “lady of the house” with giggling aplomb. As for Dylan, anger, darkness and rebellion are more than that of a normal teenager, due to the loss of his mother.
With more calls to school for Dylan’s misbehavior than Carter has pills, the final one resulting in expulsion, Ben makes a rash decision. He quits his job, looking to move out of the city. Determined to make a fresh start, Rosie is enchanted with a beautiful old house in the canyons, while Dylan, definitely not. But adding an interesting touch is that it isnft just any old house they find. Itfs a zoo! And it has cool animals!
Long closed to the public due to financing, Ben sees this as his next great adventure – and one that he can experience with his family. Against the advise of his accountant brother, Duncan, Ben uses inheritance money from their parents’ death and buys the house, the zoo and its eclectic staff headed by zookeeper Kelly, determined to restore the zoo – and his family – to its former grandeur. But this is no easy road to hoe as Ben must corral his staff, the animals and his children to ready the zoo for an inspection before the taskmaster of all inspectors, Walter Ferris.
While Matt Damon may not be the world’s best zookeeper, he is certainly one of the best fathers, especially when it comes to girls. Calling on his own experience as father to all girls, Damon is at his best when interacting with Rosie’s Maggie Elizabeth Jones. In those moments, each lights up the screen with infectious heartfelt exuberance and childlike glee. However, Damon doesn’t sustain the paternal pride when interacting with Dylan’s Colin Ford, making for some very unsettling heated combative anger that doesn’t sit well in the grand scheme of the film, leading to inconsistency and confusion in the story and the character of Benjamin.
Scarlett Johansson is outstanding as zookeeper Kelly. Understated, yet smart, strong, defiant, determined, she stalks the grounds like a lioness, fiercely protecting her cub, which in this case is the zoo itself. Nothing prim or proper about the character Johansson has a natural flow and ease that is engaging and likeable.
But we’ve got a trio of scene stealers taking all the thunder – Maggie Elizabeth Jones, Thomas Hayden Church and John Michael Higgins. Jones is beyond a delight. Her giggle and smile just light up your heart. Church, as Duncan, is at his wry, dead-pan best and is perfect counter to Damon’s Ben. I never tire of Churchs downtrodden matter-of-factness and in WE BOUGHT A ZOO, it is the perfect touch. But the real laugh-out-loud funny comes from Higgins as zoo inspector Walter Ferris. He makes every scene his own with and over-the-top, exaggerated beaurocratic song and dance that fuels the story line. Ifm hard pressed to think of another actor who could bring this delicate a balance to the character without turning it into a mockery. Higgins just roars!
Elle Fanning also provides a nice character arc as Kelly’s niece Lily that goes miles in rehabilitating Colin Ford’s Dylan. And don’t miss a nice little cameo by Animal House‘s Peter Riegert!
Written by Crowe and McKenna, the pair infuse feel good fuzzies into the story while Crowe as director, is quick to intersperse some well framed lensing capturing the mighty beasts at the zoo, something that handily keeps the film on track after intense exchanges between Damon’s Benjamin and Ford’s, Dylan. Although there is much cliche with the film’s contrived tension in the will-they-or-won’t-they make it in time to re-open the zoo plot point, thanks to the performances, in particular, by Higgins, Church, Johansson and Jones, there is a permeating truth and sincerity that is more than engaging. Intricately interwoven into the story is a subplot of an ill, aging tiger, that will open your heart and your tear ducts as you watch Damon go 1:1 with this magnificent creature.
Cinematography is competently handled by Rodrigo Prieto while real kudos go to production designer Clay Griffith. Filmed on location around Los Angeles, Griffith, Crowe and company actually designed and built the eight acre Rosemoor Animal Park depicted in the film, complete with animal enclosures, walking paths, an observation tower, amphitheater, decoratively designed functioning water features, greenery, nature paths and, of course, concession area. On completion, the zoo looks much like Mee’s real-life, Dartmoor Zoo. Notable is the extensive collaboration between Griffith and animal coordinator Mark Forbes to not only determine the proper type of enclosures for the animals, but to coordinate animal placement. Did you know you can’t put tigers near bears? Or that lions and tigers can’t be allowed to see each other?
Featured in the film are 75 different species of animals, among them, an African Lion, Bengal Tigers, North American Grizzly Bears (lions and tigers and bears, oh my!), White-Faced Capuchins, Crested Porcupines (that are beyond cool!), Grevy’s Zebras, Chilean Flamingos, Indian Blue Peacocks, Asian Small-Clawed Otters (beyond cuteness), a Kangaroo and even a Leopard.
As with all of Crowe’s works, music is an important element to tone and movement and WE BOUGHT A ZOO is no different. With a score composed by Jonsi of the Icelandic band Sigur Ros, the soundtrack includes not only new music from Jonsi, but nine thematic elements and two new songs, ebbing and flowing with familial emotion.
WE BOUGHT A ZOO…lions and tigers and bears! Oh my!
Benjamin Mee – Matt Damon
Kelly Foster – Scarlett Johansson
Duncan Mee – Thomas Hayden Church
Walter Ferris – John Michael Higgins.
Directed by Cameron Crowe. Written by Crowe and Aline Brosh McKenna.
Partnering with National Geographic, WE BOUGHT A ZOO encourages you to learn more about Big Cats and National Geographicfs Cause-An-Uproar campaign at http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/big-cats/cause-an-uproar/.
