Something New and Different

Allow me to preface this blog post by saying that this post is a slight deviation from my normal posts. This deviation is not major, indeed it is still about thoughts which I am having during my Peace Corps service but as you will see, my desire to blog about these thoughts were motivated by one particular event – namely, by me watching the movie We Bought a Zoo for the first time. This movie has been around for a couple of years, although I have not seen it until now. I also want to say that although I will give a synopsis and my interpretation of events in the movie and how they may relate to thoughts I have had in my life; it is not intended to be a complete review. In fact, so as to not be influenced by critical reviews, at the time of writing this post, I have not read any such reviews. With that, allow me to continue by saying that this movie is excellent. If you have seen it, perhaps you share a similar opinion, perhaps even for similar reasons as me. I am not one to say that any movie is the best I have ever seen up to that point, mostly because I have no way of measuring the validity of such a statement. Also because different movies carry different meanings for me, it would be like comparing apples and oranges. I will say, however, that this movie absolutely ranks among my favorites and if I were to make a subjective list of the best movies I have ever seen, it would be on there. Before going further, I want to take the opportunity to say that this post may contain spoilers, so if you have not seen it and wish to do so first, I encourage you to. Perhaps then you can let me know what you think relative to what I have said.

We Bought a Zoo is about a single father, named Benjamin Mee (Matt Damon), who is raising two children named Dylan (Colin Ford) and Rosie (Maggie Elizabeth Jones). The movie starts with a narration by Benjamin’s son, Dylan who explains that his father is a writer who craves adventure, and which is largely the motivation for his writing. Benjamin’s wife has recently died due to “an illness” leaving him to raise the relatively young children on his own. As Dylan explains in the opening narration, none of his “adventures” have prepared him for the upcoming one. Specifically, being a single father who is struggling to raise the kids while also trying to move forward and start a new life that is free from the pains of the past. Of course, this “new” adventure would also include moving to the country, opening a zoo, struggling with the financial risks associated with a very large investment, and facing the realization that the past is something which will remain a part of us but does not have to prevent us from having a future.

As time passes, the family, especially Benjamin and Dylan have trouble moving forward with their lives. This occurs to the point that Benjamin avoids going to many of the places which had significance to him and his late wife, and Dylan becomes a troubled teenager who spends most of his time working on dark and sometimes gruesome drawings involving decapitated bodies and characters that are visibly in physical or emotional pain to varying degrees. For Benjamin his avoidance of areas of significance from his past life means that he has trouble going to a large number of places including restaurants, certain areas of town, and even specific aisles in the grocery store which remind him of his wife. Dylan finds himself expelled from school after stealing money from a cash box. As it turns out, this was his third time being suspended in a semester, which results in his expulsion from school. Soon thereafter, Benjamin has a profound realization that the only way for him to move forward with his life is to completely start over at a place where everything does not remind him of his wife.

He decides to begin searching for a new home where he can raise his children and begin life anew. He eventually finds a large house in the country, surrounded by green hills and mountains. There is more than meets the eye, however. As it turns out, this house is also a part of a zoo which has been closed 2 years prior, and the animals are only kept by small amounts of funding from the state government. In purchasing the property the buyer will also be purchasing the zoo, animals, and group of zookeepers which maintain the place and animals to a small degree, while also agreeing to upkeep the zoo. As the real estate agent suggests, if the property is not sold soon, the animals will likely be put down and removed. After quarreling with the idea of buying the place, Benjamin decides that it is the sort of change he needs. This decision represents adventure for Benjamin and comes after seeing the excitement that his daughter has with the possibility of living there.

Not without significant and ongoing resistance from Dylan, the family packs up their things and moves to the new home. Once there, Benjamin invests all of his money into improving the zoo and meeting regulations imposed by the USDA with the goal of opening for business a few months later. During this development phase, Benjamin is faced with making some exceedingly important decisions regarding the future of the place, including using a surprise sum of $85,000 from his wife, which she secretly stored for him in a safety deposit box shortly before she  passed away. By the time the opening day arrives, Benjamin is mostly broke but the zoo meets USDA inspection and is ready for business in time for excited zoo-goers. Also, he and his son are faced with the painful realization of just how little progress they have actually made in moving forward from their previous life. This previous life, of course is completely dictated by their sadness of loss and inability to let go. The two have a poor father-son relationship and Dylan remains very secluded in his lifestyle, despite the attention of a pretty young girl named Lily (Elle Fanning) who helps out around the zoo. It is obvious at times that Dylan enjoys her company but the unresolved pain he has prevents him from accepting something new into his life that may result in more eventual pain if that were also lost. Benjamin, similarly also finds himself hung up on his love for his late wife. He is still wearing his wedding ring and admits to the beautiful head zookeeper, Kelly (Scarlett Johansson), whom he likes but has trouble saying so, that he will never be able to let go of his past and move forward in terms of truly loving another woman. This comes in an evening discussion between the two when Benjamin says that although he has left the city and everything that reminded him of his wife, she is still there. In fact, she is everywhere. She is a part of him and his family and he sees her as he looks into his son’s eyes.

The inability of Benjamin and Dylan to grow comes to a climax, however when the two have a heated argument the same night of Benjamin’s confession to Kelly. Dylan had heard Benjamin as he said that he sees his wife every time he looks Dylan in the eyes, and Dylan interprets this as Benjamin’s inability to love him. Specifically, seeing his wife every time he looks into Dylan’s eyes would prevent him from moving on with his life without his wife. Benjamin suggests that Dylan is remaining secluded and moving around sadly and unable to help the family with anything in their quest to rebuild the zoo, and that this is the problem in their relationship. Indeed, the real issue is in their inabilities to let go of the hurt from the past and move forward together in a renewed, loving relationship. In the next few scenes, the two are able to reconcile and immediately become closer.

Benjamin and Dylan’s reconciliation is accompanied by Benjamin’s realization and acceptance that he must make the decision to put down an old and weakening tiger that is at the zoo. Previously, Benjamin was hesitant to do this because he kept holding on to the hope that the tiger would improve with medication. In fact, he initially insisted that the zookeepers continue to provide the tiger with medication and visits from a quality veterinarian. Finally deciding that it is in the best interest of Benjamin and the tiger to put him down is symbolic in a really important way. Specifically that Benjamin is finally realizing how to let go of things that are beyond his control and preventing his own personal growth. As it is, Benjamin and Dylan reconcile, the tiger is put down, and the climax of the movie comes shortly thereafter when Benjamin is finally able to scroll through the pictures and a video of him and his wife and kids which he had stored on his laptop – something he was previously unable to do. This climax is very emotional for Benjamin as he weeps and imagines the video which he is watching as if it were actually playing out before his eyes in his living room. This scene is extremely important because it marks the point at which Benjamin finally realizes that he can proceed with his life without feeling as if he is not being faithful to his wife. It is a painful realization, but frees him nonetheless. Further, he can also continue to remember her and the important role she played in his life while also being able to achieve his own personal growth. In fact, there is one point in this scene when Benjamin is looking at a picture of his wife with her eyes closed. As he is imagining the picture to be real, his wife proceeds to open her eyes and smile at him as if to give Benjamin the release he needs in order to move forward. It is as if she is telling him that she loves him and she knows that she will always be in his heart, but that is OK if he moves forward with his life and gives his heart to another woman. At this point, a tear begins to run down Benjamin’s face as he realizes the incredible transformation from his old life to his new one that has just happened. It was as if Benjamin always wanted to move forward but did not know how to do this until this very moment. The movie concludes by Benjamin acting on his obvious love for Kelly, as they share a kiss on a day that was sunny when it was supposed to be rainy, and in the midst of an amazing opening day which saw an enormous crowd of people come to celebrate the re-opening of a zoo that would otherwise have been doomed to fail.

As I have mentioned, this is among my favorite movies of all time. The symbolism seen in the movie is meaningful and profound. The challenges experienced as a part of the human condition are portrayed so well in this movie that I am certain many people appreciate and have been moved by this film, or at least can relate to it in some way. The primary difficulty of the characters in this story is their inability to achieve growth within themselves and their relationships with other people. This is evident by their clinging to the past, which is accompanied by depression and inability to form new, close relationships, as was the case with Dylan, or by avoidance of painful situations which reminded him of his wife, as was the case with Benjamin. Benjamin could not go to certain areas of the grocery store, he could not drive down certain roads, and he could never return to the same diner where he met his wife for the first time. Prior to the climax of the film, he could not even scroll through the pictures of his wife which were saved on his computer.

Growth is a slow and painful process. This is especially true when the growth must come because of the result of a significant loss, and at the very fiber of your being, you want nothing more than things to be as they used to be because you never asked for such a loss to occur. Growth, however, must occur if one is to live a truly happy life wherein love is a central theme, after suffering such a loss. This growth cannot occur, however, unless we decide to confront the issue headfirst, holding nothing back. Prior to the climax of the movie, Benjamin was merely running away from the problem without actually admitting to himself that the only way he would achieve personal growth was if he actually confronted his fears. Once this would occur, it is likely that he would be able to love another woman in the same way that he had loved his wife. He had to enter a painful realm within his heavy heart that was previously avoided. This was partially because of the pain which it involved, but also because he simply did not want to live without his wife as the primary object of his affection. It did not matter that she was not actually there anymore. The point was that he still felt as if he was faithful to her and honoring her spirit because he had not given himself to another woman. He couldn’t. Not at least until this part of him was put to rest. Figuring out exactly how he could achieve the ability to love again was something he had to patiently wait for, but also have the courage to do. As he said to his son at the point of the movie when he and Dylan were reconciling after their fight, and in regards to Dylan’s love for Lily, if you muster up the courage for 20 seconds of bravery, it can make a difference for the rest of your life. This statement is symbolic of the difference which Benjamin needed to decide to make in his own life. He had to muster up the courage to confront his fear of letting go so that he could further grow as an individual, and especially to love another human being the way he had loved his wife. It is interesting to note that the same “20 seconds of courage” theme was present at the point when he first met his wife in the diner, which he was afraid to enter, and at the point when he had to let her go. Letting his wife go was something that he had to decide to do when he was ready. Furthermore, it required significant courage because of the pain associated with completely closing one chapter of his life and starting a new one which would result in significant growth and happiness, albeit with another woman. In my opinion, this courage began to develop at the point when Benjamin finally decided that he had to put the ailing tiger down. While it is true that he wanted to start a new life by moving to a new place and escaping all that reminded him of his wife, it is also true that he was doing just that – merely escaping and avoiding what he actually had to do to ensure his own personal growth. This decision to put the tiger down took tremendous courage and a deviation from his traditional stance of not giving up hope that the tiger could pull through. This deviation is similar to the decision he had to make to actually let his wife go and allow himself to fully heal. He did not know how to do this and furthermore, it was too painful to even confront. Once he decided to confront the problem, he had immediately trekked into uncertain territory in the hope that it would result in his own personal release and subsequent growth. It is interesting to note here that throughout the movie, Benjamin is described as an adventurous person who is not afraid of taking risks. This is evident in his daring escapade through a hurricane in a helicopter in order to obtain material to write a book, his work with killer bees to write a story on them, and his complete investment in the zoo. Despite the risky behavior he had elicited, he had tremendous trouble risking the pain he would feel if he let his wife go and tried to move forward without her. This again is an interesting and accurate portrayal of the conflicting feelings one might experience as a part of the human condition. In the end for Benjamin, however, he was able to confront his personal troubles and invite the growth that he craved for so deeply. Interestingly, the same “20 seconds of courage” which he needed to let his wife go were very much the same which freed his son from the same pain. As I mentioned, prior to Dylan healing, he was infatuated with his drawings. These drawings undoubtedly were symbolic of the pain he was feeling inside. The dark pictures reflecting death and loss were exactly the same pain he was feeling throughout much of the movie. As a result, he led a secluded and troubled life. He was hesitant to welcome change, especially when that change was a deviation from his past life. The move to the country and zoo pulled him away from the home he had always lived in – from the home which he associated with his mother. This change, of course was met with tremendous resistance. Also, despite his obvious attraction for Lily, he could not let her come inside of his personal space. Most likely, he felt dependent on the idea that he loved his mother and could not move past that. This dependency precluded him from forming new relationships, especially those which were based around love. That part of him was sealed off to the world. Furthermore, if he opened it up he may risk losing the dependency of the loving relationship with his mother while also making himself vulnerable to feeling the same sort of pain in the future if he lost, for example, Lily. The theme of “20 seconds of courage” is what saved him, however. In a rainy scene, where the rain is symbolically washing away the pain, stubbornness, anger, and depression which he feels in regard to his past, he sees that Lily had rearranged the letters on the window of her bedroom to say “If you love me let me know.” He immediately decides this is his chance to be brave and open himself up to new love. He runs to her window, confesses his true love to her, and the two embrace as Dylan takes a tremendous step is his own healing and personal growth.

We Bought a Zoo is based on the actual events portrayed in the book of the same name by Benjamin Mee. It is a wonderful portrayal of the power of love to heal a person, but to also hurt them. It is a story of personal growth and new life that occur in the course of a lifetime, but also about the pernicious events that one may experience in a lifetime. As is evident, and even symbolized in this story due to the word’s use in the movie, such pernicious events can include the loss of a loved one which can severely damage a person to such a degree that progress can become extremely difficult or impossible. Love, as the movie portrays has the power to bring new life to an individual who is struggling severely with loss. The growth that can result from love, however, is painful, lengthy, and requires significant energy on the part of the person who is trying to seek such personal growth. If they are steadfast in the search for growth and healing, however, a person can use the love and human spirit which they possess to help advance them through this difficult and painful process that can be an inevitable part of the human condition.