The Elephant In The Living Room (2011)

82% of critics liked it
(22 reviews)
81% of users liked it
(422 ratings)

Set against the backdrop of a heated national debate, director Michael Webber takes viewers on a journey deep inside the controversial American subculture of raising the most dangerous animals in the world, as common household pets. This groundbreaking film chronicles the extraordinary lives of two… More Set against the backdrop of a heated national debate, director Michael Webber takes viewers on a journey deep inside the controversial American subculture of raising the most dangerous animals in the world, as common household pets. This groundbreaking film chronicles the extraordinary lives of two men at the heart of the issue - Tim Harrison, an Ohio police officer whose friend was killed by an exotic pet; and Terry Brumfield, a big-hearted man who struggles to raise two African lions that he loves like his own family. In the first of many unexpected twists, the lives of these two men collide when Terry's male lion escapes its pen and is found attacking cars on a nearby highway. -- (C) Nightfly Entertainment

Rating, Runtime: PG, 1 hr. 36 min.
Directed By: Michael Webber
Genres: Documentary, Special Interest

In Theaters: Apr 1, 2011 Limited
On DVD: Feb 6, 2012

Critic Reviews

V.A. Musetto, New York Post
Explores the growing trend of treating dangerous animals as just another household pet.
Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times
Spends rather too much time in the troubling company of Terry Brumfield, a barely mobile invalid who houses two full-grown African lions and their four cubs in a trailer in his backyard.
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
There's a kind of macho element to the movie that contradicts Harrison's interest in humane treatment with filming the suffering of animals and hoisting a couple of them for the camera.
Mark Holcomb, Village Voice
Love is messy, unfathomable, and occasionally lethal, as this low-budget, benignly prosaic exposé of the trade in non-domesticated animals proves.
Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
This impeccably made film is chock-full of enlightening and sometimes bizarre moments...
Peter Debruge, Variety
Auds can't possibly predict the upsetting twist to Landry's story, nor the welcome surprise that precedes it, but these two scenes are documentary gold.
Danny Minton, Fort Bend Sun
Incredibly informational, interesting and profoundly moving.
Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
alarming and heartbreaking documentary ... examines the small but apparently rapidly growing subculture of people who keep exotic animals as pets.
Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times
An exceptionally compassionate, fair-minded film that clearly states, beyond any rational benefit of the doubt, that raising potentially dangerous animals as pets is destructive to animals and humans alike.
Tasha Robinson, AV Club
The documentary shoots fish in a barrel -- or maybe snakes in Tupperware -- but it does so with gripping, maddening, well-told stories.
Robert W. Butler, Kansas City Star
A documentary that examines the exotic animal phenomenon and discovers -- without getting sanctimonious -- much madness.
Matt Pais, RedEye
Throws bits of information at random, like an exotic pet chucking you-know-what.
Brian Tallerico, HollywoodChicago.com
This fascinating documentary shines a light into an underreported corner of America, the backyards and living rooms that currently house deadly exotic animals that should never have found themselves in captivity at all, much less as pets.
Betty Jo Tucker, ReelTalk Movie Reviews
Kudos to producer/director Michael Webber for delivering such an emotional, enlightening and gripping documentary about the dangers of keeping wild animals as pets.
Glenn Heath Jr., Slant Magazine
The documentary isn't about presenting a balanced opinion, but creating an ideological four-alarm fire about this epidemic of irresponsibility and arrogance.
Barbara Goslawski, Boxoffice Magazine
Lions and tigers and bears -- oh my! Even the requisite venomous snakes chew up the scenery in this film.
Maitland McDonagh, Film Journal International
Sympathetic but clear-eyed documentary...about the rewards and liabilities of America's growing fascination with exotic pets...
Mike Scott, Times-Picayune
As engrossing as it is emotionally charged.
Matt Singer, IFC.com
The Elephant in the Living Room goes a bit overboard with the sensationalistic news clips... but Brumfield's story is deeply affecting
Justin Strout, Orlando Weekly
The Elephant in the Living Room is structurally scattershot but its evidence is sound and fair, its characters sympathetic and its message, if muddled, is still important and effectively delivered.