站前學英語 | 菁英站前校 【看電影學英語：我們買了動物園】

We Bought A Zoo review

Simon Brew

Don't overlook Cameron Crowe's film of We Bought A Zoo. It's surprisingly charming, and human, cinema, even if it does go on a bit...

Published on Mar 15, 2012

 Sometimes, the world forgets just how good a filmmaker Cameron Crowe is. Appreciating that his output has been bumpy since the release of Almost Famous, there are moments in We Bought A Zoo where you appreciate what he can do, that others struggle with. For instance, he can coax excellent performances out of younger actors. He’s able to put across characters that you actually care about. And he’s capable of springing a bit of a surprise.



I can’t be the only person who got the impression from the promotional material that We Bought A Zoo was mawkish, overly sentimental piece of Hollywood nonsense. Granted, it’s based on a true story, but that’s hardly a factor that encourages film makers to put the sugar bowl away.

For most of We Bought A Zoo, though, Crowe pitches the material really very well. It’s the story of Benjamin Mee (played by Matt Damon, in knitwear and sensible clothes), his son, and his daughter, as they try to put their life back together after the death of Mee’s wife, the childrens’ mother. Young Rosie, played delightfully by Maggie Elizabeth Jones, proves to be the positive core of the family, with the troubled disconnect between Benjamin and his son, Dylan (Colin Ford, also very good) fuelling the darker moments.



As Dylan is expelled from school, Benjamin decides it’s time for a fresh start and…, well, the clue’s in the title really, isn’t it?

What’s less expected is just how engaging a human film this is. If you’re expecting a film that focuses on the animals in a cutesy-drama kind of way, then you’re, thankfully, out of luck. Sure, the animals, and zoo, have a metaphorical purpose, but it turns out that the thrust of We Bought A Zoo is about a young family coming to terms with grief, and trying to move on.

That’s a description that does the film few favours, as it’s a largely positive piece of cinema. It’s got light humour, sure direction from Crowe, and it’s an easy film to enjoy. But that's substance to it all, too.

It does have missteps, though, that really hurt it. Firstly, there’s the running time. We Bought A Zoo does outstay its welcome, choosing to wrap things up just a little too well, a good while after the film has reached what appears to be its natural closing point.

And then there’s the character of Walter Ferris, played by John Michael Higgins. There’s certainly a movie sheen to the way that the characters are portrayed in the film, but in the case of Ferris, the zoo inspector, it feels as if a pantomime baddie has stumbled onto the set. It’s the one performance that really jars, breaking the tone of the film by having a character who doesn’t feel in any real way believeable.

Because, even appreciating that this is a Hollywood feature, everything else is buyable. Scarlett Johansson as a head zookeeper? Matt Damon’s migration to amiable Hollywood leading man? Angus Macfadyen’s exaggerated Peter MacCready? In different ways, I was rooting for each of them. 

We Bought A Zoo is a gentle, warming piece of cinema, likely to be passed over by many. That’d be a pity. It’s good, solid, quality filmmaking, using the cloak of the zoo to tell an engaging, human story. It tells it well, even if it does like to keep going a bit past its welcome. It might just be more suited to a nice sofa and a warm cup of cocoa, though, but that's really no bad thing at all.

「動物跟人類選邊站，你會選擇哪一邊？」（電影我們買了動物園對白），我會選擇動物，因為動物在大自然界中無私奉獻，忠實地扮演著自己的角色，這部電影是去年編輯最喜歡的小品電影，與菁英的學員們分享。

今天許多媒體八卦版的新聞，就是Scarlett Johansson、Mila Kunis等好萊塢女星的手機被駭客入侵，因而有Scarlett的裸照，以及賈斯汀頭戴粉紅內褲的照片在網路上流竄，這讓我想起之前疑似Blake Lively的相關遭遇，哎～又是手機惹禍啊。

但撇開這話題不說，她與Matt Damon合演，改編自英國《衛報》專欄作家Benjamin Mee真人真事回憶錄《我們買了動物園》（We Bought a Zoo）的電影，內容傳遞出的家人情感與築夢過程，卻令我很感動，會興起想買小說先來讀一讀的慾望。我想，家就住在動物園裡，應該與求學期間曾夜宿海生館的體驗大不相同！

從預告片來看，電影劇情與書似乎有點出入；班傑明（麥特戴蒙飾）原是南加州的媒體工作者，遭逢生活變故後，他毅然決然辭去令人豔羨的工作，帶著家人搬到鄉村打算開啟新生活。就在他們搬進耗盡積蓄所買下的新居時，才猛然發現，他們買的是一座廢棄動物園裡面的房子！

動物園裡當然有動物，與其被動物威脅，不如規劃園區掌握牠們的行蹤；然而這樣大規模的生活改變，對班傑明而言，是前所未有的挑戰。他不只要照顧好家人，還得要管好每隻動物，可是他並不是個有錢人，動物園長期下來的沉重負債，不僅可能拖垮一家人的生活，甚至連累動物們· · ·。

幸運的是，當班傑明拿出破釜沈舟的決心放手一搏時，哥哥鄧肯（Thomas Haden Church 飾）不但全力支持，他也雇用到了一群充滿理想的人，包括灑脫不怕死的園區管理凱麗（史嘉蕾嬌韓森飾）。儘管偶有動物上演出走戲碼，驚嚇到附近的民眾，班傑明和家人、以及動物園裡的員工仍齊心重建這塊有如烏托邦的動物天堂，但現實環境與人性對挫折的考驗，能讓他們順利重振動物園的往日榮景、完成夢想嗎？（事實上，Benjamin 目前還是英國 Dartmoor Zoological Park 的經營者唷！是一座兼具現代自然保育及教育意義的動物園區）

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