Movie Review - "We Bought a Zoo" 12/23/2011

The newest review by Gracie Mae/Margem will be "We Bought a Zoo", released December 23, 2011.

TRAILER:

Criteria:
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.

1/5 – Barely worth any time.

2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.

3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.

4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.

5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around – characters, music, theme, storyline, etc.


Well, here we are doing reviews again.  Today, I streamed "We Bought a Zoo" which was released in December of 2011.  I really enjoyed this movie.  This one was a tear-filled movie, but it was very well done and very lovely.  Basic plotline is that an adventure writer's wife passes away (6 months before the movie takes place) and he's trying to cope with being a single father to a 14 year old son that is despressed about life and a 7 year old daughter.

The son, Dylan Mee, gets expelled from school for theft.  He also is shown to have really great artistic talent drawing [with pen or charcoal] and drew a decapitation photo for his art class' wall muro (on paper).
The daughter, Rosie Mee, doesn't seem to have issues with their current situation except the fact that the neighbor next door has parties often with drinking and loud music - "their happiness is too loud".
The father, Benjamin Mee, keeps having issues about everyone giving him pity and feeling bad for his situation.  He also keeps seeing places that reminds him of his deceased wife, which makes life uncomfortable for him.
With all of these factors, Benjamin decides to move his family to start a new life.  Dylan of course is upset that he is going to be taken from his home and his friends, but Benjamin decides that it would be the best for all of them.
After looking through a lot of houses, they find one that is in a nice location and has the kind of space that Benjamin wants.  One catch, though, about the place: a zoo is on the property.

The zoo was closed to the public two years prior and the state kept the place 'barely surviving'.  If no one bought the place (house, zoo, everything) and became the zoo's owner/keeper, the animals would have to be euthanized and the zoo staff would lose their jobs.  Though he knew it would be a large undertaking, Benjamin realized that Rosie liked the place a lot and so he bought the house and the zoo.

Throughout the movie, there are struggles with the loss of Mrs. Mee, struggles to keep the renovation on going to reopen for the summer, and struggles between the single dad and his kids.

SPOILERS: The zoo reopens with a better result than that they thought, the father was able to get his kids happy and communicating with him, Benjamin is able to acknowledge that he loved his deceased wife and that he needs to move on, and the other struggles are generally resolved.




Music -
Mellow and with the program, barely noticeable.  Accented what needed accents but did not drown anything out.  There was a Bob Dylan song "Buckets of Rain" and Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl", but I don't think I recognized the other songs.


Relationships - 
I liked how Benjamin and Dylan were able to sit down and be frank about their relationship. It was good to see that parents and children can, potentially, talk real about what is going on.  It gives one hope for parent-child(ren) relations.

I like the fact that though Benjamin was mourning the loss of his wife, he still tried to be the best dad that he could be, looking out for the health and happiness of his children.  I liked that he was a very real character and that, though he had enough money to buy a zoo, he was still trying to do the best that he could:  Benjamin worked on his father-child(ren) relationships, the relationship with his brother, the relationships with the zoo's staff, and dealing with the stress of sporatic zoo issues.  I also loved the fact that he was able to have a good goal in mind (restoring the zoo to open it again) and that he was willing to go for it - his adventure. Mind you, I would not be so willing to dump money into a zoo if I didn't have experience in dealing with animals before.  Hundreds of thousands of dollars were used in the restoration of the zoo, and not all of that was the zoo's money.



Themes - 
Father/child(ren) relationships: Well done, giving hope that sitting down and talking/listening can actually fix a lot if both/all parties are willing to be serious and to the point.  Attention to the son allowed the son to go from drawings of decapitation and utter pain/despair to drawings of snakes, flies and tigers [from scared/freaked/stressed to good/creative/positive].
This movie is a reminder to parents to look out for the best for their children, for their happiness and their well-being.  If Benjamin had deserted his children for the zoo, his character would have SEVERELY been damaged.  Even though he was dealing with the zoo and his own widower issue, he always tried to keep his kids foremost in his mind [Benjamin even at one time drove a18.4 mile round-trip to get butter for corn-on-the-cob because his kids wanted butter, though upon getting back found out that Dylan found some at home.].

Human/animal relationships: Care for the animals was emphasized because it was a zoo, but the staff told Benjamin that he just had to learn how to talk with the animals.  He had to learn how to be real with the animals - talk with them, don't use baby talk.  One of the tigers (17 yr old "Spar"), at the end of his life, trusted Benjamin because he had tried to keep this tiger going with bringing in a vet, getting expensive medicines, etc.  Dylan says to Benjamin, regarding the tiger, "You did your best, Dad.  He knows that."  And it was absolutely sad to hear that the tiger had to be put down, but it is nature to deal with death.
Something about Spar's death seemed to connect with Mrs. Mee's death - the death of a human or animal maybe be painful but they should be remembered.  It wasn't until after Spar's death that Benjamin was able to move on from his wife's death.  Maybe it was because Dylan was talking with him when Benjamin realized that Spar should be put down, that Benjamin was able to connect with his son from then on, or maybe it was Benjamin realizing that life and death are hand in hand.  Who knows, but it was something to note.


Tears!  This movie was very emotional for me.  I cried when Benjamin missed his wife. I cried when Benjamin and Dylan connected. I cried when the tiger was giving up hope.  I cried when Benjamin was telling his kids the story about how he met their mom at the coffee shop.


One good thing that I took from the movie is the idea of "20 seconds of courage".  The idea is that you should give it 20 seconds of courage to do something that needs to be done.  "Sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage, literally just twenty seconds of embarassing bravery, and I promise you something great will come of it."



Must say one thing that caught my fancy: at one point, Benjamin's brother is seen walking through the zoo in very 'city like' clothes and rubber boots.  Benjamin's brother being an accountant, dressed as such, with that city gait, was just hilarious especially when Benjamin asked if he had looked like that when he first arrived.  Yes, says one of the staff.  "Wow.  That's humiliating."  I thought that small scene was just amazing.
Also, it was funny to see the bear walking the nearby town's street, though not as dramatic as the trailer makes it to be.  I just started laughing because it is so weird to see a Grizzly just walking down a street at your car.




Okay, rate.
5/5 - Absolutely amazing movie.  Well presented, well rounded.  Good emotions and good themes.  And to top it all off, it is based on a TRUE STORY.
Highly recommended!  (Oh and Matt Damon plays as Benjamin Mee, the dad, and he did a wonderful job in the part.)