We Bought a Zoo (!)

We Bought a Zoo

Vinyl Films/20th Century Fox, 2011

Directed by Cameron Crowe

Starring: Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Thomas Haden Church

 Three and a half stars

It's been over a decade since Cameron Crowe made Almost Famous, a semi-autobiographical film that not only became his magnum opus, by perfecting his personal, moving and perfectly soundtracked directorial style, but also went on to be my second or third favorite film of the decade. That film was the peak of a terrific run for Crowe that had started with the screenplay for 1982's Fast Times at Ridgemont High (from his book of the same name), and later, his directorial debut on 1989's Say Anything. The former became a cult phenomenon of sorts and starred Sean Penn, whose portrait of a slacker, surfer, stoner kid introduced the world to an actor who would, however unlikely, go on to win two Best Actor Oscars. The latter still has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is generally considered one of the greatest teen romance films ever made. That run also included 1995's Jerry Maguire, which has Tom Cruise giving one of his best performances, Cuba Gooding earning an Oscar (likely for his first and last truly great performance), numerous iconic quotes and a Bruce Springsteen song featured prominently in the soundtrack: needless to say, it's a film I adore, and all ll three are films that I love and will watch nearly anytime I catch them on TV.

Almost Famous was a different beast entirely though: this time, Crowe was giving us a personal view of his own life rather than the lives of characters he created, and in doing so, he made a film that was even more resonant and moving than his other work. To this day I think it's flawless, from Philip Seymour Hoffman's brief but brilliant appearance as legendary music critic Lester Bangs, to the "Tiny Dancer" singalong on the bus, to the bittersweet romance of the run-after-the-plane scene, to the shouted confessions between the members of the central band during a shared near death experience. I personally maintain that the film should have, at very least, taken home Best Picture that year, and I think it's one of the Academy's greatest blunders that it didn't even get nominated. That failure becomes even more tragic in the light of the decade that would follow for Crowe, with the unusually weak (and well...weird...) Vanilla Sky, and the flawed (but underrated) Elizabethtown. The latter released in the fall of 2005, and for awhile, I thought it was the last time we'd ever see Cameron Crowe.

Thankfully, I was wrong; Crowe finally emerged from his extended hibernation this year, with two music-documentary projects (one for Pearl Jam and one for Elton John), and his latest full length feature, We Bought a Zoo. While the film doesn't quite reach the level of his "holy trinity," it's the best film he's made since Almost Famous, and features many of the cornerstones I've come to adore in his films, from the immensely personal, heavily character driven storyline, to the fantastic cast, to the wonderful soundtrack. While the film occasionally stumbles into a few inherent cliches, by the end, I could hardly have cared less: I don't think there's a more uplifting, moving or altogether more joyful film around this holiday season, and I couldn't have asked for a better film to play the role in my semi-annual tradition of seeing movies on Christmas Eve.

A lot of credit must be given to Matt Damon, who gives one of the most likable leading male performances of the year, but does so with the usual depth and emotional nuance that Crowe's lead characters always possess. While the role will, I think, prove to not be "showy" enough for Oscar voters, Damon will certainly be among my favorite performances of the year (by the time I've seen a bit more, that is). His character always feels "real," and he brings life and validity to every scene he's in and every relationship his character forms during the film, whether it's with his onscreen kids (who he's fabulous with), his brother (Thomas Haden Church, with some light comic relief), with the colorful cast of characters that come into his life with the zoo, or even with the animals. Damon has always been a great actor, but I don't think there are many more dependably solid guys working in Hollywood these days, and I'm confident that, eventually, he will have an acting Oscar to go along with the one he won for the screenplay of Good Will Hunting.

Also notable (as usual) is Crowe's pitch perfect music selection. Along with a gorgeous score by Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi, he delivers a few perfectly soundtracked scenes to the likes of Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and Bon Iver, and each works perfectly. Crowe has gone on record saying that he felt the music brought out something extra in Damon's performance, and Damon has sworn by Crowe's music methods, even saying he will use music in a similar way when he makes his directorial debut next year. No moment is as iconic as the boombox-over-the-head scene he scored with Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" back in Say Anything (few scenes are), but a scene where Damon looks through pictures of his late wife becomes viscerally moving with the help of a Jónsi tune. That scene may be the film's definitive moment, actually, because it represents so much of what this film is: this tale, about a man making a big life change post-tragedy, of trying to move on, has been done many times (though perhaps not with a zoo), but the result here is one of the funniest, most joyful and most moving films of the year, and though many will write it off, I could see it being the film I revisit more than any other from this year; that's some of the highest praise I can give, but then again, I wouldn't expect anything less from a Cameron Crowe film.