We Bought a Zoo

Ever won­der what hap­pened to Gen­er­a­tion X? Here’s an answer: they bought zoos. The grungy, flan­nel-wear­ing 1990s arche­types got rich, set­tled down, bought homes and start­ed fam­i­lies. Now in their for­ties, they over­see menageries of kids and dogs in their com­fy sub­ur­ban enclo­sures, stay­ing ​‘with it’ by loop­ing Bön Iver and Sig­ur Rós in the car.

It’s not a bad life for this ripen­ing gen­er­a­tion, espe­cial­ly when Cameron Crowe, who encap­su­lat­ed the 1990s with movies like Sin­gles and Jer­ry Maguire, has made a film just for them.

Ben­jamin Mee (Matt Damon), a mid­dle-aged jour­nal­ist and father of two, has recent­ly lost his wife to can­cer. Strug­gling to cope, he decides almost on a whim to buy a run­down zoo in rur­al Cal­i­for­nia. With the help of his sev­en-year-old daugh­ter Rosie, and despite the protests of his 14-year-old son Dylan, Mee pours both his mon­ey and his soul into the zoo, bond­ing with its ani­mals and quirky staff, includ­ing come­ly zookeep­er Kel­ly Fos­ter (an authen­ti­cal­ly de-glam­or­ised Scar­lett Johans­son). The race is on to spruce up and re-open the zoo to the pub­lic before Mee’s funds – and his family’s patience – runs out.

We Bought a Zoo is exact­ly the type of old-fash­ioned fam­i­ly enter­tain­ment that Gen­er­a­tion Xers would’ve tossed their stale bong water at. It’s a low-key, sun-filled movie about bond­ing with your fam­i­ly and fol­low­ing your dreams, buoyed by a relent­less­ly uplift­ing sound­track and with lit­tle room for irony or self-aware humour. Crowe has nev­er been one to skimp on the cheese, and there are mawk­ish moments, espe­cial­ly with Mee’s cutesy daugh­ter, that may have you reach­ing for the sick bag.

Cyn­i­cal Mil­len­ni­als take note, how­ev­er: this movie isn’t for you. It’s for fam­i­lies raised by the gen­er­a­tion that came before. Mee is a clas­sic 1970s kid, a care­free adven­tur­er who came of age in pros­per­i­ty and nev­er had to wor­ry about a thing until the day his wife died.

It’s not hard to imag­ine reformed Gen Xers nod­ding in recog­ni­tion at his jour­ney to matu­ri­ty – not to men­tion the sen­si­tive­ly drawn antag­o­nism between Mee and his son, Dylan. And for the kids? Well, there’s plen­ty of cute ani­mals and a gen­uine­ly touch­ing sub­plot between Dylan and an admir­er (an endear­ing­ly gawky Elle Fan­ning) who lives at the zoo. Par­ents wea­ried by dire fam­i­ly movies may also be relieved to learn there are no fart­ing mon­keys or rap­ping rhi­nos here.

But it’s hard to shake the sus­pi­cion that We Bought a Zoo might best be enjoyed as a wish ful­fill­ment fan­ta­sy for dis­il­lu­sioned fortysome­thing dads. Some­day, it sug­gests, you too can get away from it all, bond with your kids, suc­ceed against all the odds. And maybe score with Scar­Jo, too.