Benjamin Mee buys a zoo in the middle of grief, and the movie spends nearly two hours deciding whether that’s a good idea. Cameron Crowe directs We Bought a Zoo, and he co-writes it with Aline Brosh McKenna, working from the memoir of the same name by Benjamin Mee. Matt Damon plays Benjamin, Scarlett Johansson plays Kelly Foster, the head keeper, and Thomas Haden Church plays Duncan Mee, Benjamin’s accountant brother. The film runs 124 minutes and arrived in theaters on December 21, 2011.
This is a family comedy-drama dressed as a true story, and it wants to land on both sides of that equation. It wants you to laugh at the absurdity of buying a zoo, and it wants you to feel the weight of loss that drove Benjamin there in the first place. That split ambition is the engine of the whole picture, and it is also the source of most of its problems.
Trailer, via Rotten Tomatoes Trailers.
The Story Behind the Screen
The film is based on Dartmoor Zoological Park, a 33-acre zoological garden near Sparkwell, Devon, England. The movie follows Benjamin, who loses his wife Katherine seven months after her death and finds himself raising Dylan, a 14-year-old son, and Rosie, a 7-year-old daughter. When Dylan gets expelled from school, Benjamin decides the family needs a fresh start, and he starts looking for a new house. His realtor, Mr. Stevens, shows him a listing for a large old house, but the catch is that it comes with a zoo that closed several years earlier.
Benjamin sees his daughter playing happily with peacocks and decides to buy both the house and the zoo. His brother Duncan tries to talk him out of it, but Benjamin won’t listen. The zoo staff, led by Kelly Foster, start making renovations to reopen the park to the public. Meanwhile, Dylan befriends Kelly’s 13-year-old cousin Lily, who develops a crush on him.
The tiger’s health starts to fail, and Benjamin tries to medicate its food, but the tiger refuses to eat. Kelly urges Benjamin to let the tiger go, and Benjamin refuses, leading to a heated argument. Walter Ferris, a strict USDA inspector, arrives for a surprise visit and gives Benjamin a list of necessary repairs that would cost over $100,000. Benjamin cannot afford the repairs, and the staff’s morale drops, fearing the property will be sold to a buyer that will close it down.
A Familiar Formula
We Bought a Zoo follows a familiar template for films about families in crisis. Someone dies, someone grieves, someone makes a rash decision, and that decision becomes the engine of the story. In this case, the rash decision is buying a zoo, which is the kind of move that usually comes with a lot of practical complications and emotional stakes.
The film leans on the idea that the zoo is a way for Benjamin to start over. He wants to leave behind the grief of losing Katherine, and he wants to give his children a sense of purpose and adventure. That’s a noble impulse, but the movie spends a long time establishing the stakes of the purchase before it does anything with them.
The problem is that the zoo itself doesn’t get enough room to be interesting. It’s a large house with animals, but it isn’t really treated as a distinct world with its own rules and rhythms. The animals are mostly background, and the staff are mostly cogs in a machine. The film is more interested in Benjamin’s internal struggle than in the actual work of running a zoo.
The Cast Carries the Weight
Matt Damon anchors the film as Benjamin, a widowed father trying to hold his family together. He plays the role with a quiet intensity that keeps the film from drifting into pure sentimentality. Scarlett Johansson plays Kelly Foster, the head keeper who becomes Benjamin’s love interest and a mother figure to Dylan and Rosie. She brings warmth and strength to the role, and their scenes together are the most grounded moments in the film.
Thomas Haden Church plays Duncan Mee, Benjamin’s accountant brother and Dylan and Rosie’s uncle. He tries to talk Benjamin out of the purchase, and his arguments are reasonable, but the film doesn’t give him much room to win. Colin Ford plays Dylan, who is initially drawn to Lily. Maggie Elizabeth Jones plays Rosie, Benjamin’s 7-year-old daughter, who thinks living at a zoo is a grand adventure.
Elle Fanning plays Lily Miska, Kelly’s 13-year-old cousin who works at the zoo’s restaurant. She is too young to legally work, so she is paid “under the table” out of her cousin’s salary. Patrick Fugit plays Robin Jones, the zoo’s craftsman and owner of Crystal the Monkey. John Michael Higgins plays Walter “Walt” Ferris, the strict USDA inspector who earns the dislike of many people, especially Peter MacCreedy. Angus Macfadyen plays Peter MacCreedy, the carpenter of the zoo who claims his ideas were “stolen” by Walter Ferris. Carla Gallo plays Rhonda Blair, the secretary and bookkeeper of the zoo. J.B. Smoove plays Mr. Stevens, the Mee family’s real estate agent.
The Problem With the Middle
The film’s biggest weakness is its middle stretch. Once Benjamin buys the zoo and the staff start renovating, the story slows down. The film spends a lot of time showing the staff working and the animals being cared for, but none of it builds toward a larger goal. The tiger’s health problem is introduced early, but it is resolved in a way that feels rushed. The USDA inspector’s visit is a threat, but it passes without changing anything.
The film also struggles with tone. It wants to be a family comedy, but it keeps dipping into drama, and the shift between the two modes is often jarring. The jokes don’t always land, and the dramatic moments don’t always feel earned. The film is at its best when it focuses on the relationships between Benjamin, Dylan, and Rosie, but it keeps pulling back to the zoo itself, which never quite comes alive.
Crowe’s directing style is warm and humane, but it lacks discipline. He knows how to make a scene feel lived-in, but he doesn’t know when to cut away. The film runs long, and its pacing sags in the second act.
The Music and the Message
Crowe has a reputation as a writer-director who cares deeply about music, and that shows in We Bought a Zoo. The film’s soundtrack includes live versions of classic songs, and the film itself has a gentle, nostalgic feel. The score is pleasant, and there are a few scenes where the music carries more weight than the action does.
The film’s message is simple: grief is heavy, but doing something with your life can help you move past it. Benjamin buys a zoo to start over, and the zoo becomes a way for him to reconnect with his children and find a sense of purpose. That’s a fair idea, but it is not a particularly original one. The film leans on it heavily, and it doesn’t do much to complicate or deepen it.
The film also touches on the idea of legacy. Benjamin learns that Katherine left him an investment account with instructions to use the money wisely while listening to his heart. This is meant to be a guiding principle for his decision-making, but the film doesn’t spend much time exploring what it means beyond the surface. The idea is promising, but it is underdeveloped.
Comparing the Two Halves
| Element | First Half | Second Half |
|---|---|---|
| Tone | Mixed, with comedy and drama | Mostly drama, with occasional comedy |
| Focus | Benjamin’s grief and the zoo purchase | The zoo’s operations and the staff’s morale |
| Pace | Fast, with momentum | Slow, with repetition |
| Effectiveness | Engaging, with clear stakes | Disengaging, with unclear stakes |
The table shows the shift clearly. The first half of the film is engaging because it sets up the stakes of the purchase. The second half loses steam because it fails to deliver on those stakes.
A Mixed Verdict
We Bought a Zoo is a film with a good premise and a talented cast, but it is a film that never quite reaches its potential. It is too sentimental to be a great drama, and too scattered to be a great comedy. It is a film that wants to be both, and it succeeds at neither.
The film’s strengths are its performances and its warmth. Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson give committed performances, and their scenes together are the best in the film. The film’s weaknesses are its structure and its pacing. The middle stretch drags, and the zoo itself never becomes a distinct world.
The film is not a failure, but it is a disappointment. It is a film that could have been better, and it leaves you wishing the filmmakers had trusted their audience more.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
