We Bought a Zoo (2011)

Cameron Crowe has a way with a story that could be too sad or too sappy if not handled properly. He has a bit of a penchant for bringing 'real life' stories to the silver screen('Almost Famous', 'Jerry Macguire'). As a psychiatrist, I am attracted to this--I often hear stories that are unbelievable but true. I think that I would not find this remotely believable if I saw it in a movie or read it in a book. It takes skill to make those stories work. You have to make people see what made that story, as improbably as it is, happen. Here is the story. Ben Mee (Matt Damon) has lost his beloved wife Katherine to cancer. He was a journalist, but with his wife gone, his priorities are now to take care of his fraying family--teenage Dylan (Colin Ford) and 7-year-old Rosie (Maggie Elizabeth Jones). Roise is so worried about her father that she is shunning friends to stay home to make sandwiches for her father, and Dylan is angry, acting out, and recently kicked out of school for bad behavior. So things have been bad and are getting worse. Ben decides that a change is in order, and starts to look for a house that doesn't remind them all of Katherine. The real story happened in England, but in the movie they are in LA--so when they buy a zoo (I don't think I am giving anything away here--it's in the title), it is in a gorgeous foothills setting that anyone could imagine falling in love with. Which adds to the believability issue--the problems of caring for large mammals in confined spaces seems to overwhelming. Ben throws himself into the process--he gets out his tool belt, he opens his checkbook, and he starts asking questions about how to deal with animals. Since I know almost nothing about that (I have had dogs, cats, fish, chickens, and one tarantula--which doesn't really inform me about how to manage tigers and bears), that part was enjoyable. The cast of characters is quirky, but I suspect that is a reflection of what you find in zoo workers. Despite some distracting subplots, this movie deals with death of a spouse and a parent and the aftermath of grief in an enjoyable but realistic manner. Nicely done.