This latest little adventure from Jerry Maquire director Cameron Crowe finds Matt Damon in the role of Benjamin Mee, a man who is not only dealing with the loss of his wife and struggling to raise two kids alone, but who has also just bought a zoo. Yes, in a leap of faith to reinvent himself as a writer, an adventurer, a father, and ultimately a human being, he purchases a new house in the sticks that comes with an obligation to upkeep a small, long-closed zoo, and to pay for all of its colorful employees! His oldest, an artistic boy teenager played with fire by Colin Ford, hates him for moving away from the city, but then again, he hates everything. Wait til you see his art. His youngest, a cute-as-a-button little girl played by Maggie Elizabeth Jones, loves it there! Throw in two budding romances, a wonderful villain who threatens to condemn the zoo before they can reopen it to an eager town, and a killer soundtrack that one can expect from Crowe, and you’ve got yourself a crowd-pleasing movie from the heart that the whole family can enjoy, and one that has some truly tear-jerking power, played not to lighten our pocket books, but to fill up our hearts with a remarkable true story about what can happen with a mere “twenty seconds of insane courage.”
Rated PG for language and some thematic elements.
Running Time: 124 Minutes.
Released in theatres: December 23rd, 2011.
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