From the people who brought us last year’s “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium” comes another bad family film.
“Nim’s Island” stars Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin. She plays Nim, an 11-year old girl who lives on a secret island with her father (played by Gerard Butler) and her sea animal friends, including a sea lion named Selkie and a lizard named Fred.
Nim’s dad is a marine biologist. He takes a trip on his boat in search of some new plankton and gets lost in a storm, leaving Nim alone on the island.
Jodie Foster plays an author who writes a series of popular books that star Alex Rover, a kind of Indiana Jones character. But the writer (whose name is Alexandra Rover) is nothing like the hero of her books. But when Nim asks her in an e-mail to come and help her since she’s all alone and worried about her father, the author must overcome her fears and try to be a real-life hero.
There are a lot of problems with “Nim’s Island”. First of all the movie is supposed to be an adventure/comedy…but neither the plot nor any of the characters are very funny. Jodie Foster is a very good actress but she’s terrible doing all the physical comedy her role requires. And much of the blame also has to go to the writers of the script, who put her in several awkward and embarrassing scenes.
The story is not very believable and there are too many plot points. In the middle of the movie the island gets invaded, not by pirates, but by tourists. But that story-line doesn’t really go anywhere. Another major mistake was the decision to have Butler play two roles: the father AND Alex Rover. They should have simply hired another actor.
I’m a big Abigail Breslin fan but she delivered much better performances recently in “No Reservations” and “The Ultimate Gift” than she does here.
“Nim’s Island” is rated PG for some mild, rude humor. The movie is geared toward young girls who might dream of living on an island with their dad and funny animals and not have to go to school. After seeing this movie they’ll probably dream of something else.
On The Official Kid Critic Report Card, “Nim’s Island” gets a D.
Both the trailers that were out before the movie was originally released and the original poster showed scenes that aren’t in the movie. It seems like the producers were making changes right up to the last minute. They should have made more.