We Bought a Zoo is another Sunday night tv movie masquerading as a feature length film. It also has the added burden of being an adaptation of an autobiography that is set in the United Kingdom whereas this movie is set in Southern California. I think that single change illustrates the shallow and twee treatment of life by Cameron Crowe. The movie uses numerous cinematic tropes to signify grief, love & adventure while not eliciting any authentic emotion in the viewer until the last fifteen minutes when I teared up a bit. Crowe has a talent for endings (remember Elizabethtown). Angus Macfayden, Thomas Haden Church & John Michael Higgins give brief moments of respite from the precious antics of the rest of the cast. If you watch this movie, you may think that the world will reward your irresponsible financial maneuvers with emotionally healed children, a second chance for love with Scarlett Johannson and financial success. I watched We Bought A Zoo immediately after Promised Land and noticed that each movie devoted a handful of lines to how “handsome” Matt Damon is. Is this now part of his contract? Don’t get me started about the treatment of animals. I’m just going to leave that topic alone. Skip it.