Every once in a while a movie comes along that eloquently paints a picture of grief

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

After we returned home from another graduation open house we decided at my son's suggestion to watch the Matt Damon movie 'We brought a zoo'.  I must admit when it first came out my initial impressions were not positive.  I thought it would be another stupid film about talking animals with the main character doing stupid stunts just to get a laugh.

This movie eloquently paints a picture of the profound effects of grief and it's impact on each member of the family when the family lost their wife and mother. One of the earlier scenes showed the youngest member not being able to get to sleep because the neighbors next door were having a party. Her line about their happy being too loud illustrates the inner pain a grieving family is going through while the rest of the world is having fun.   The teen age son gets expelled for painting pictures depicting his angry inner turmoil since he lost his mother illustrated how each member grieves differently after a loss.

When the main character  decides to quit his job and take his family on an adventure to find a new place to live illustrates how our response to grief is to avoid it by completely change our surroundings.   What they got after their move was anything but being able to bury that grief when each of the supporting cast observed how each family member interacted while grieving.  Only until they were able to come to grips with their pain and deal with it head on were they able to process it.  Matt's decision to finally allow the staff to put the Bengal tiger down came after he came to grips with his emotions of losing his wife.

I recommend this movie for the simple reason that it is well done and  may open the door to talk about about how the physical loss of a loved one has impacted each family member.  This movie is a mixture of very entertaining, sometimes humorous scenes mixed in with the serious side of how a family recovers from their grief.  As a result of  this family processing their grief they were able to see the beauty of other relationships. As the character who represented Matt Damon's brother said, " I love those animals, but I sure do love those humans".

This is definitely a movie worth watching because it will present opportunities for the family to talk about how each of them responds to the same loss.