Movie Review: We Bought A Zoo

A much-awaited movie for 2012 is finally here in Philippine big screens brought by to us by 20th Century Fox PH.

Based on a true story, We Bought a Zoo is about a father who is trying to recover from the death of his wife, juggling all the roles of a parent for his two children, and making efforts to self stress-debrief from the traumatic loss in the company of wild animals.

The film stars the very versatile actor Matt Damon as Benjamin Mee. He never fails to tweak amazing characters from playing a tough agent assassin in the Bourne series to a soft and mellow yet adventurous old school newspaper journalist, burnt-out from a lowly desk-job who ventured out into a career in zoo keeping. This great movie with smart casting by acclaimed director Cameron Crowe fits Damon’s character perfectly.

Another great actress, Scarlett Johansson, plays Kelly, the dedicated zookeeper who frantically works her butt out just to keep everything in the zoo intact and see to the welfare of the animals. At first she questions Mee’s motives of acquiring the property but was later inspired by Mee’s resilience in conquering all adversities just to keep the zoo and his family together.

Another adorable person who adds to the films charm is Rosie, played by seven year old Maggie Elizabeth Jones, whose character is packed with a powerful sharp intelligence combined with pure honesty, innocence and love of life. Elle Fanning, who plays Lily, definitely developed into a more charming young lady. However her role in the story was not something to celebrate, to the point that her acting talents did not fully surface.

Movies like these are where one can appreciate the story more without so much CGI and death-defying stunts but just pure and unadulterated powerhouse acting of great talents.

We Bought a Zoo film is a great family movie that teaches the reality of grief and loss, and the courage to live by every detail of small things that come with a memory. The Mee family thought that the geographical transfer and the radical change of lifestyle would give them a sudden breakthrough to recover from the loss but it made them miss the wife and mother more. Fortunately, their fate somehow allowed them to move forward by dwelling on the family’s love for one another and their new life with new friends and wild animals.

We Bought A Zoo is a production of 20th Century Fox distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures Philippines. It is now showing in all major cinemas in the metro.