Water for Elephants

Romance/youth contends with fidelity/age in Francis Lawrence's Water for Elephants as the young penniless Jacob Jankowski (Robert Pattinson) falls in love with his boss's wife. Jacob is lucky to have a job, having fortuitously jumped on a train in the middle of the night carrying a travelling circus to its next destination.  His veterinary skills soon prove useful although one of his diagnoses humanely disrupts the circus's most prominent act. Taking matters into his own hands against the protests of the volatile master of ceremonies (Christolph Waltz as August) almost leads to his dismissal, but August respects his firm convictions, even though they frustrate his fiery ego.

Thus we have a self-made person whose successfully made their living for decades in a fluctuating market willing to make sacrifices to accommodate a naive intelligent capable worker. Unfortunately the brutal manner in which he conducts his affairs leave his protégé with little to aspire to. An economic depression complicates matters as predictable revenues dry up and paranoia unleashes its maniacal tendrils. The introduction of a forbidden subject of desire does little to destabilize the frenetic tension.

When theories put into practice are validated by longevity their proponents undoubtably feel a sense of accomplishment. But if this sense of accomplishment leads both to an unyielding desire for order and vicious attempts to authoritatively manage the chaotic, its heralded methodology will likely engender internal miscalculations. If the alternatives which present themselves are met with the sword, its manufactured stability may lose its sustained truth-value and blindly obscure the forward thinking focus of its integrative synergies.

As that which they love most flutters away.  

We Bought a Zoo

What do you do after your partner dies, you quit your job, your son is expelled, and it feels like your thirst for adventure is wantonly drying up?

You move your family to the country after buying yourself a zoo, that's what you do, and do everything in your power to turn its fortunes around.

This is precisely what happens in Cameron Crowe's lively new film We Bought a Zoo, based on the true story of Benjamin Mee's purchase of the Dartmoor Zoological Park in Devon, England.

Full of entrepreneurial grit and zoological tenacity, Mr. Mee (Matt Damon) doesn't let minor details like having no experience at all in regards to zoo management get in his way, as he risks his remaining capital and gets to know his dedicated staff.

Will taking care of a wide variety of animal species in the hopes of bringing his zoo up to code so that the public can wonder at their ferocious longevity and provide him with the funds to stay in business enable him to get over his wife's death and develop stronger bonds with his two children?

Will the charms of stunning young feisty zoologist Kelly Foster (Scarlett Johansson) play an integral role in his personal transformation and demand that he learn to let go?

Will prickly zoo inspector Walter Ferris's (John Michael Higgins) dismissive demeanour teach him that the biggest adventure of all is learning how to play by the rules?

And will an escaped grizzly bear function as the catalyst that displaces one means of production for another?

Through the passage of time.

We Bought a Zoo makes me wish I could buy the shit out of a zoo and manage it and take care of all the animals and slug beers with my staff and analyze the porcupines etc.

It's an evocative enlivening testament to the strength of the human spirit which is challenged at every turn and rejuvenated through the art of sociozoology.

Mr. Popper's Penguins

As I suspected, the penguins in Mark Waters's Mr. Popper's Penguins are very cute as they mischievously frolic and mingle. But the film itself leaves little to the imagination as it slips and slides from one happy-go-lucky scene to another.

As if they made this film for children.

Mr. Popper (Jim Carrey) makes his living acquiring real estate and in order to become a full-fledged partner must convince Mrs. Van Gundy (Angela Lansbury) to sell her Tavern on the Green, a family run restaurant and the only piece of privately held property in Central Park. Mrs. Van Gundy will only sell to someone possessing personal and familial integrity, however, and balks at his initial proposal.

Mr. Popper has not been very successful at raising his family and is currently divorced and none to popular with his two children. But as fate would have it, his deceased father has left him 6 penguins which are a huge hit with his disgruntled kids. As the film reels on, the penguins bring Popper and his family closer together as he learns to genuinely care for them. Yet how will these penguins effect his professional development as they wear down the hardboiled edge responsible for nurturing his commercial acumen?

The penguins themselves are somewhat magical, possessing intuitive humanistic gifts that accentuate their cuddliness.

Unfortunately the writing surrounding their shenanigans, apart from the opening scene and those involving Pippi (Ophelia Lovibond), fails to impress, and although there are a couple of moments within which Carrey displays his considerable talents, many of the lines with which he is supplied freeze his gravitational intensity.

For someone who makes a living convincing people to let go of their most cherished possessions, throughout the film it doesn't take much for him to be outwitted. It's fun to watch while someone who possesses considerable talents in one domain can't find an outlet for them in another, but you would expect him to be somewhat more aggressive in his personal life considering that such tendencies are responsible for his financial security.

Perhaps Mr. Popper's Penguins is saying that you don't have to be a sharp ruthless cutthroat to be successful in business, and that one's modest clever creativity is enough to enable their career related acceleration?

Perhaps it is also saying that the introduction of something absurd into a predictable yet successful routine can recalibrate one's traditional approach in such a way that they discover that for which they have always been searching yet never consciously realized they desired?

Perhaps it is also saying that when one's personality alone is not enough to garner the support of their loved ones, special commodities are required in order to speak to that which they have been indoctrinated to love more than anything else, capitalism?

Whatever the case, the film doesn't flow well and where you would expect there to be cohesive links fluidly encouraging a congenially frosty dynamic, its Antarctic pitfalls breaks up the progress, and only a cheerful, bright, occasionally endearing narrative remains.

I would have rather seen a film entitled Mr. Smithers and his Little Dogs, starring John Waters, where the hero and his 6 little dogs reunite a recovering morphine addict with a former prostitute through the power of puppy love.

It's only a matter of time.