Thu, 28 Mar, 2024

Movie Review: We Bought a Zoo

By Bidish Acharya

It was already 3.00 PM in the afternoon and the thought of wasting yet another day doing nothing struck my head. Then, I thought of watching a movie. Like all the other people, I too have different taste for movies depending on my mood. I went to Google and typed, “Top ‘feel good’ movies ever” and I visited some links. I had watched most of them and rest were not so inviting. As I was scrolling down a list published on IMDb, I saw a name “We bought a Zoo!” I got struck with the fact that I had borrowed this movie from a friend a long time ago. I quickly searched about it to find Matt Damon and Scarlett Johanson playing the lead roles. The rating was good, I liked the cast, and before I could even realize, I had already prepared myself for the movie.

The movie starts with an introduction of Benjamin Mee (Matt Damon), the lead actor, who is struggling to move on after the death of his wife. He has a tough responsibility of bringing up his son, Dylan and his daughter, Rosie. Though he claims to be strong and acted comfortable with the world around him, he was actually dying inside. He is not comfortable living in his place because every other stop or restaurant reminds him of the times spent with his wife.

One day, with his daughter Rosie, he goes on a hunt for a new house to settle in, hoping that he would be able to leave the memories behind and set off for a new challenge. None of the houses impresses them until the very last one, which Benjamin claims to be exactly what he had wished for. As he is totally excited and jumping over things, he gets totally saddened to hear that it is not a house but a zoo. Yes, he had to buy a zoo. In a devastated mood, Benjamin prepares to leave, but when he sees Rosie playing so jubilantly with the peacocks, Benjamin cannot take away that happiness from her, in other words, he decides to buy the zoo.

The zoo was closed long ago and Benjamin has to work together with certain members of the zoo to re-open it again. There comes Kelly (Scarlett Johanson), who was the zookeeper and other few members who had worked in the zoo previously. They go through a lot of obstacles and unexpected troubles, but it just seemed so nice to watch them get through all of those roadblocks and totally dedicate their time in rejuvenating the zoo.

Though his brother urges him not to take stupid decisions and live a normal life, he hits back at him saying that he was an observer and writer all his life and now that he has put himself up for a real adventure, he could not get out of it. He was determined to see it through.

Well, I should stop now because I might just utter some spoilers and it will not be as entertaining to you as it was for me. The movie is truly fantastic. It has some heartbreaking scenes that will almost make you cry, but you don’t. And, it also has really heartwarming scenes that will literally make you cry; I did (looking up in the ceiling didn’t work).

I strongly recommend you to watch this movie, don’t worry about downloading it from torrent, you can collect it from me.

Happy watching!