This is about a family that buys a zoo. Its as high-concept as you can get, and its equally straightforward in wearing its heart on its sleeve. We know to expect this because We Bought a Zoo comes from Cameron Crowe, the writer-director of Say Anything …, Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous and, more recently, the 2005 flop Elizabethtown. We know there will be some poignantly phrased life lessons in store for this family as they struggle to reconnect after the mothers death. The whole exercise could have been agonizingly mawkish, and/or filled with cheap, lazy animal-poop jokes. And yet, its not. Its actually surprisingly charming and more emotionally understated than the material would suggest, and a lot of that has to do with Matt Damons performance. He is an actor incapable of faking it, so he brings great authenticity and gravitas to the role of Benjamin Mee, a widower and father of two. Six months after his wife died of cancer, Benjamin is struggling to move on. Hes having trouble dedicating himself to his career as a Los Angeles newspaper columnist and finds himself squabbling with his troublemaking teenage son, Dylan (Colin Ford). Benjamin thinks a change of scenery might help, so he quits his job and moves the family to a rustic, rambling house on 18 acres outside the city. Seems perfect except for the fact that the land includes an animal park that has fallen into disrepair. Scarlett Johansson co-stars as the hottest zookeeper on the planet. PG for language and some thematic elements. 123 minutes. 

Two and a half stars out of four.

Christy Lemire