We Bought a Zoo
Dir: Cameron Crowe
2011
*
In 1989 Cameron Crowe became a rival to John Hughes with the now classic teen romantic-comedy Say Anything. He followed it up with the equally cult Singles and then the Oscar winning Jerry Miguire. He was considered a pioneering new talent, Almost Famous cemented this somewhat in 2000 but then things started to go wrong a year later with his questionable remake of Alejandro Amenabar's Open Your Eyes. Then he made We Bought a Zoo in 2011. The creative decline is huge. We Bought a Zoo is based on the memoirs of Benjamin Mee but you have to wonder why 20th Century Fox bothered to buy the film rights as Mee's story is completely rewritten. Mee's Zoo is in England, he bares no resemblance to Matt Damon's character, physically or in persona. Mee's wife died after she and her husband bought the Zoo together, and I wonder how she'd feel about her husband being depicted as a bad father and indeed, settling down with a new partner just 6 months after her death (something he didn't do). I really don't understand the idea behind buying a wonderful story and then ripping it to pieces. The final piece is sickeningly sweat, completely overcooked and painfully long, not to mention dull. The teen romance between Mee's son (Colin Ford) and Farm girl Lily (Elle Fanning) is quite dreadful and a far cry from the greatness of Say Anything, it's hard to believe it is the same director. Before filming, Crowe gave Matt Damon a piece of music he composed and a copy of the 1983 film Local Hero  as preparatory material, I can't see how either would be relevant, making me wonder if the director has lost the plot somewhat. The balance of comedy and drama is infuriatingly bad, the script is nauseating and I'm really struggling to think of anything I liked about it. It's got a Bear in it. I liked the Bear.