Watch: Matt Damon makes a heartwarming mistake in "We Bought A Zoo"

We Bought A Zoo is director Cameron Crowe's return to the big screen after 2005's dreadful Elizabethtown, in which a man fails at business, fails to kill himself with a jury-rigged stab machine (really), and then fails to captivate audiences across the land. The film was meant to be uplifting and life-affirming, but really it was just a disaster. And wouldn't you know it? A similar thing seems to be happening in the trailer for We Bought A Zoo, about a down-on-his-luck dad (Matt Damon) who does something... well, you'll see:

Um, excuse me? "You don't even need any special knowledge to run a zoo. What you need is a lot of heart." That's definitely true, if you plan to own and operate the most depressing and dangerous zoo you've ever seen¹. My guess (my hope?) is that the trailer is glossing over the more practical parts of this family's journey into living life — it is based on a true story that didn't end in animal-cruelty charges, so it's at least somewhat plausible. I guess the real question is, how much do you trust Cameron Crowe to get it right?

Side note: I've already made myself clear about using Sigur Ros songs in trailers. It's cheating. Stop it.

¹For me, this is a tie between the Catskill Game Farm in upstate New York and the Ecotarium in Worcester, Mass. Both terrifying.