We Bought a Zoo

In most states, someone can be declared legally dead if they’ve been missing for seven years, so it’s time to file the paperwork for Cameron Crowe. Crowe, who once had the rare gift for saying what an entire generation would feel a year or two before they felt it, ran out of things to say with the classic Almost Famous. Now he’s just making movies. On the heels of Vanilla Sky and Elizabethtown comes We Bought a Zoo, a tepid story told with the gloves on. Worse, it’s not an original Crowe idea; instead, one of the best screenwriters of the past 25 years leans on a romantic-comedy hack (Aline Brosh McKenna of 27 Dresses) to grease the rails. And his uncanny knack for music direction—finding the perfect gem for just the right moment in the film—has abandoned him, too. Rest in peace, Cameron Crowe.