I’m a little surprised that Cameron Crowe‘s We Bought A Zoo (20th Century Fox, 12.23) runs only 90 minutes. (Or so says the Wiki page.) That feels a little slender. Substantial films need to run 100 to 110 minutes and beyond, no? On top of which the poster gives me pause. It feels so Dean Jones, so family-friendly, so sunshine-smiley, so Paul Simon Kodachrome-d.
Crowe has had his ups and downs, but he’s an ambitious director-writer of depth. Or at least he was the last time I checked. Why is Fox marketing his latest film as the kind of thing that people like me are going to scowl and crack wise about?
** Obviously there are exceptions — Days of Heaven, Zelig, etc.
