We Bought a Zoo

D. and I watched most of this today (I missed part in the middle). No movie could possibly follow a formula more closely. Widower buys a zoo, fails then eventually passes the inspection, learns to get along with his teenage son, and *gasp* falls for the lovely but initially skeptical zookeeper who happens to be played by Scarlett Johansson. In fact, it’s based on a real-life story, so I bet they just sat down and planned how to pop in all the available clichés – and invented a few instant classics to boot. Nobody shows up for the grand re-opening of the zoo? Turns out there are dozens of eager visitors waiting patiently on the other side of a fallen tree!

So it was a really great opportunity to talk about narrative formulas with D. and to have him speculate on likely outcomes. Nevertheless, he really liked it. (The acting was far better than one would expect, given the plot.)