Benjamin Mee a 40 yr. old journalist dealing with the recent death of his wife and struggling to bring up his two young children in
the city, decides that his teenage son’s expulsion from school is a wake up
call to re-think how they should move forward as a family. He goes house hunting and after exhausting
the list of conventional homes for sale discovers a house in the country which he
decides is absolutely perfect. One tiny
snag, it actually comes with a Zoo. And
not just any zoo but a dilapidated one that is on its last legs BUT which the Conditions Of Sale insist that he keeps in tact or the animals must be put down!
Egged on by his 7 year old daughter, he opts to keep the zoo open. He’s obviously a complete novice but fortunately has inherited a
small-dedicated staff that is encouraged by Benjamin’s enthusiasm to fight the
odds to pass the necessary Official Inspection to keep their License to remain
open. Disaster follows disaster and they
run out of both funds and patience.
Almost. Kelly the head Zookeeper
is chief cheerleader throughout the whole process and although claims to work
24/7 always manages to look remarkably pristine and fresh, but then again she is
played by Scarlett Johansson! Meanwhile the sulky teenage boy still grieving
for his mother doesn’t share his father’s enthusiasm, and almost wrecks their
plans too
It is such a preposterous story that it had to be
true. And it is. Loosely.
The real-life Benjamin Mee is a Brit journalist who when his father
died, removed his extended family from London and bought the ailing Dartmoor
Park Zoo in the West Country and had a really tough time trying to make it a
success. And now its been given the
Hollywood treatment and made into a feel-good family movie to inspire us into
thinking that even ridiculous ideas like this can end happily ever after.
Matt Damon played Benjamin as a solid good chap trying
to do his best, but I was more enamored with Thomas Haden Church playing his
accountant brother who always preached doom and gloom. I did somehow expect more bite to the piece because
the movie had been directed by Cameron Crowe who’s work is usually much more
edgy than this, but it ended up as tame as the animals themselves.
If you like cutesy, or think that having one dog as a pet is never enough, then this is for you.
★★★★★★
