The Writing and Direction

"Crowe takes a lot of heat for his portrayal of adorable kids, and already there's been a lot of online grousing about the Rosie character being a female variant on the aggressively lovable Jonathan Lipnicki in Crowe's 'Jerry Maguire.' What Crowe doesn't get enough credit for is his continuing insight into and empathy with teen characters, and one of the really engaging things about 'Zoo' is how conscious it is in showing the thread between characters who shared an adolescence together and how that contributes to the hard-earned wisdom of characters trying to bridge generational misunderstanding. Which is to say that the scenes between Damon and Ford are among the best-written and best-played scenes in the film." — Glenn Kenny, MSN Classic Short Ugg Boots