I know. Matt Damon sunk low in a family tear-jearker about a widower who – guess what? – buys a run-down zoo. On the whole it’s completely dreadful – Elle Fanning plays home-schooled like she’s a a lobotomized moron, and Scarlett Johansson grins her way through the reflective bits with the glee of a complete psychopath.
I shall say this only once however, and quietly lest anyone hear me: I totally sobbed my way through it and I really really liked the fatter, slobbier Matt Damon as the grieving Dad. In fact, I found myself wishing the movie was a three-hander between Matt, his two kids (who are great) and a few cutesy animals. We Bought A Zoo filmed in Thousand Oaks and Pasadena California, though the zoo of the original was in Dartmoor, England, and the actual Benjamin Mee looks like this, not like this.
