I walked seven miles, there and back to watch this film on a
quiet Monday afternoon. This should tell you three things; One) I have too much
time on my hands, two) I really like Scarlett Johansson and three) I’ve hit
rock bottom. I sat in an empty cinema auditorium in the hope that the seven
miles would have been worth it. I sat through the Orange
advert and the painfully annoying M&Ms/FTRC advert, wishing the film to be
worth the trip. Well it wasn’t.
The plot, based on a true story which I was familiar with
goes as thus. Recently widowed writer, Benjamin (Matt Damon) is struggling to
keep his family on the straight and narrow. He is close to losing his job and
has a fourteen year old son who keeps getting into trouble at school. After his
son is expelled, Benjamin decides to up sticks and finds a lovely house in the
country. The house has one drawback though, it’s a zoo. With the help of a
dedicated team which includes Head Zookeeper Kelly (Scarlett Johansson),
Benjamin tries to bring the ailing zoo up to standard before a grand opening in
the summer.
I think from the trailer and even my paragraph above, 95% of
people could guess how this is going to turn out. There are no shocks or
surprises and you can see all the jokes from a mile off. The film over uses the
families loss to try to inject heart into the film and I think this is a
mistake. It constantly pulls on the heart strings by showing Damon looking at
picture after picture of his wife while terrible music plays underneath. We
know how hard it must be but the film keeps pulling the audience back to it.
The family also only appear to miss the mother at convenient moments which
doesn’t feel very realistic. The whole film is also miss-sold by its trailer as
a comedy. Pretty much all of the comedic moments are in the trailer and it is
much more of a drama.
There are plenty of plot holes here too. Damon’s son Dylan
(Colin Ford) is expelled for drawing an inappropriate mural in class which is
put up in a corridor anyway along with murals depicting love and recycling etc.
Also, Scarlett Johansson’s character complains that she doesn’t have time to
see her friends or find a man but spends all of her free time in a small bar at
the zoo with the three or four people she works with. The whole story is
oversimplified which makes it feel unreal, even though it is based on actual
events. Both Benjamin and his son spend half the film oblivious that they both
have attractive women after them. I know they’ve just had a loss but come on!
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| It wasn't all bad... |
Neither Matt Damon nor Scarlett Johansson are stretched by
these roles and you have to feel that it was just a paycheque for them.
Johansson is wasted and Damon’s only good moment comes when he is yelling at
his son. He plays the likeable everyman well though. The supporting cast are
mixed. Colin Ford is fine as a mopey teenager and Maggie Elizabeth Jones is
cute but annoying as Damon’s young daughter. If I was annoyed by the first time
she shouted “We bought a zoo”, by the third time I was ready to leave. Elle
Fanning who was wonderful in Super 8 was
ok but like the stars, not stretched. Her whole character was a bit odd. She
plays a thirteen year old who doesn’t go to school but works at the zoo and
everyone seems fine with this. Curb Your
Enthusiasm’s J.B. Smoove plays an Estate Agent but I wish his part had been
bigger so he could have injected some humour.
The film does pick up in the final few minutes for the sweet
ending that we all expected. I’d expected more from an interesting true story
and great actors but it is nothing more than mediocre.
4/10
