We Bought A Zoo

"We Bought A Zoo" is the latest film Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous, Say Anything, Jerry Maguire).  And while it features a family recently hurting from an all-too-early death of the mother, Benjamin (Matt Damon) is a father with 2 children, a cute daughter around 6, and a teenage son around 14, Benjamin takes a leap and buys a zoo so that his family can have an adventure, and perhaps overcome the void from the mother's recent passing, but in the end, it still somewhat a love story for Benjamin and coming to terms with his wife's recent death.

The cast of the zoo keepers is quite colorful, but Crowe doesn't put a lot of effort in developing most of them, rather, sets them up for comic relief, but at least Kelly (Scarlett Johansson) is quite grounded and puts the animals first in her care for them.  Johansson is quite accessible in this film, and it was nice to see, given her list of past roles.

It's a nice little family film, doesn't stray too far from the path of zoo-mantic dramedies.   I think they over-relied upon the wilderness musical scores that show up other films about nature, though.

I give it 2.75 stars, or a grade of B-.