We Bought a Zoo

Lou Lumenick started his review by saying, “Genuinely charming, treacle-free family films are tough to find these days, so I’m happy to heartily recommend “We Bought a Zoo’’ as heartwarming holiday fare that even jaded adults can share with the kids.”

Cameron Crowe made a return to his original ways after “Elizabethtown” with “We Bought a Zoo,” released in 2011, starring Matt Damon as Benjamin, a newly widowed reporter who has survived so many layoffs at the LA Times.

Benjamin’s boss and his account brother, played by Thomas Hayden Church, are stumped when he decides to quit his job and reopen the long-closed Rossmoor Animal Park that he bought with a tradition.

Benjamin’s seven-year-old daughter, Rose, played by Maggie Elizabeth Jones, is excited because the deal includes 200 endangered animals at the location, along with so many strange staff.

Teenage son Dylan, played by Colin Ford, who has already been expelled from school for stealing, is less excited at having to leave his city friends behind for the countryside. He continues behaving in ways small and large, including outrageous drawings that shock his new teachers.

Benjamin wants to reopen the zoo by July 4, but that can’t happen unless it passes an inspection by a picky federal official, played by John Michael Higgins, who does the comedy along with Church.

The leader of the zoo’s staff is tough, no-nonsense zookeeper Kelly, played by Scarlett Johansson, who Lumenick admitted, “not normally a favorite of mine, in by far her best performance to date” (wait until you see her in the MCU).

Kelly is skeptical about Benjamin, until he goes deeper into his tradition to make improvements and begins bonding with some of the animals.

The zoo staff includes Kelly’s teen cousin Lily (Elle Fanning), who tries hard to win Dylan over, a heavy-drinking, bad-tempered mechanical genius (Angus Macfayden), and a friendly guy with a very present capuchin monkey on his shoulder (Patrick Fugit, the teenage star of Crowe’s “Almost Famous”).

This film doesn’t reach as high as “Almost Famous,” but it won’t disappoint his fans, either.

He’s collaborated with Aline Brosh McKeena on an intelligent script adapted from an autobiographical book by Benjamin Mee (that was set in England).

There are plenty of animals – a 650-pound grizzly and a sick old tiger are obvious in the story – to impress the kids. For their parents, there’s a selection of songs by Tom Petty, Neil Young, and Bob Dylan.

Lumenick noted, “Damon, who also did a great job playing a widower in the wildly different “Contagion’’ this year, is a commanding presence as he struggles to help his son deal with grief over his mother’s death. Damon brings a really sensitive feel to scenes when Benjamin remembers his late wife, played by Stephanie Szostak, with love and affection, even as his relationship with Kelly begins to deepen.

Lumenick credited, “One of our great humanist directors, Crowe deals with difficult emotional issues, but always with a light, sure and honest hand.” He makes the two hours of “We Bought a Zoo” – normally a little long for a family movie – positively go by fast.

I know that this is a change of genre for Matt Damon, who we know as one of the best action stars of all time, but I think he does a good job in this family film. If you want to see Matt Damon in a different type of film outside his element, then see this because it’s a good. Don’t listen to anyone who hated on this film, see it for yourself and make your own judgment.

Look out next week to see what I will finish “Matt Damon Month” with.