Cameron Crowe returns from movie exile with We Bought a Zoo, a sweet and sentimental ode to new beginnings that features a charming performance from Matt Damon.

It has been 6 years since Crowe directed Elizabethtown, a romantic drama starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst that was considered so bad it derailed the Oscar winning filmmakers career. We Bought a Zoo is just the right film that will get Crowe’s momentum starting again.

Loosely based on the popular memoirs of the same name We Bought a Zoo stars Matt Damon as Benjamin Mee, a recently widowed husband and father who quits his job, uproots his two kids Dylan (Colin Ford) and Rosie (cute as pie Maggie Elizabeth Jones) from their middle class suburban environment and purchases a rundown zoo which he plans to rebuild.

The zoo itself houses over 30 different animals and a staff of eccentric characters. There is the cantankerous Scotsman MacReady (Angus MacFayden), eager to please teen Lily (Elle Fanning) and workaholic zookeeper Kelly (Scarlett Johansson) who also doubles as the films love interest.

But it’s the Mee family which is the focus of the movie, especially the relationship between over-his head Benjamin and moody adolescent Dylan. For his part Damon perfectly plays the type of leading male character found in most of Crowe’s movies, aka a man in crisis.

Damon does personable very well and with his Benjamin we have a character worth rooting for in both his personal and business ventures, which although screams “only at the movies” is backed by the fact that a Benjamin Mee from England actually did buy a zoo and brought it back to prominence.

What doesn’t go over to smoothly are some of the larger than life, Oscar reel moments that are peppered throughout the film. True to Crowe’s form some of the dialogue featured can only be uttered by the mouths of actors, with big proclamations about love and life ushering back to Crowe’s Jerry Maguire days where “You complete me” became the catch phrase of a generation. Don’t look for any such effect from this film.   

Yet even though he hits with a jab rather than a knockout blow, the fact that Crowe is swinging hard with his brand of adult schmaltz is something to cherish, with We Bought a Zoo sitting comfortably alongside Crowe’s better releases. This is safe ground for Crowe to relaunch himself in the world of feature films. Let’s hope he doesn’t go too far out again that next time he won’t be able to make it back.