One of the movies that opened during this busy Christmas week, and also (unfortunately) one of the least successful at the box office. It might be a one-joke movie (it’s literally in the title) but it turns out that that one joke is a pretty good one.
What Works: Matt Damon instantly elevates this story of a grieving new-widower who tries to cheer up his two kids by buying a run down zoo and renovating it (yes, it is based on a true story). I shudder to think of what a Brendan Frasier or Tim Allen-esque actor would have done with this same material. [In a parallel universe there’s a version of this movie that stars The Rock and is probably doing better box office business.] Thomas Haden Church steals every scene he’s in as Damon’s older brother. And even though the story might be clunky or cornball in places–but if we’re being honest, what Cameron Crowe movie isn’t?–by the end, it got to me.
What Doesn’t Work: As I said before, this is a Cameron Crowe movie and that can either be a good thing (Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous) or a very bad thing (the nearly unwatchable Elizabethtown), and for this movie that means it’s a so-so thing. The movie benefits from his heartfelt touches but then there’s all the crap that comes with those touches: dialogue no person would ever say, declarations to no one in particular, requiring Matt Damon to look more awkward than he should for most of the movie, wild serves between good dramatic scenes and cutesy crap–the movie’s most alive scene is a confrontation between Damon and his sullen teenage son and it is immediately under-mined by having his 7-year old daughter show up to say something cute–and an overbearing soundtrack approved for boomers. None of this derails the movie, but it does lessen it.
What I Would Have Done Differently: I don’t know…why be a Grinch? Just go see this movie because it’s better than you might think.
I will see the movie after that review.