Nim's Island (2008)

Nim's Island (2008): Dir: Mark Levin, Jennifer Flackett / Cast: Jodie Foster, Abigail Breslin, Gerard Butler, Maddison Joyce, Anthony Simcoe: Imaginative film about taking possession or losing it. Nim and her father, Jack live on an island paradise. When he becomes stranded at sea she e-mails a fictional hero named Alex Rover. The author is a paranoid female named Alexandra Rover whom is forced to answer the distress call. The ending is heartwarming but the production values are terrible. Directed by Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett who counter the flimsy production with imaginative writing. Abigail Breslin as Nim is introduced without a mother, but brought up by her father to help sustain the island. She is imaginative and intelligent with several animal friends. Jodie Foster as Alexandra must overcome her paranoia to embark on an adventure where she conquers more than her fears. Gerard Butler plays duo roles including Nim's father Jack as well as Alexandra's fictional hero with humour in tact. Other roles are reduced to overacting although Maddison Joyce as a wandering tourist who discovers Nim is a steal. He is unfortunately punished for the belief of lying but then again, these tourist aren't very bright. Families are the target audience and children in particular will enjoy it most. Theme of parental role models accompanies the chaos. Score: 7 ½ / 10

Nim (Abigail Breslin) lives with her scientist father Jack (Gerard Butler) on an isolated (apart from satellite telecommunications) tropical island. She gets great enjoyment from, and enjoys an email correspondence with, Alex Rover, the author (and protagonist) of a series of adventure novels. She does not know that Alex is actually a klutzy and agoraphobic woman (Jodie Foster), and the books are entirely fictional. Jack, away for several days doing boat-based research, goes missing during a storm and Nim, faced with an invasion of buccaneers (aka Australian tourists) contacts Alex to ask for help.Let me say that youngsters will probably enjoy this more than I did. I didn't dislike it, but I was very aware of its flaws. The main one is that the three central stories - Nim on her own vs, the invaders, Jack's efforts to save his own life and get back to Nim after his boat is damaged during the storm, and Alex's efforts to overcome her agoraphobia and make the complex journey to get to Nim's remote island - spend much of the movie away from each other: there is no interaction between the three main cast members for a big chunk of the movie. Also, the movie embraces realism (Jack's survival efforts) and whimsy (the animal sidekicks) equally, as a result of which the film suffers from an unevenness of credibility.And, given that Alex's mental view of her own creation is portrayed by Gerard Butler (well before she meets real-life Jack), we are led to belief that a romance will ensue. Well, maybe it will but, if so, it hasn't started by the time the film ends.Breslin is great, Butler is satisfactory, and Foster appears uncomfortable: I don't think comedy, especially physical, comes easily to her.

Jodie Foster plays an agoraphobic author (who pens cliffhanger stories under the guise of an Indiana Jones-type adventurer) who is contacted via the internet by a preteen girl struggling to survive on a remote island after her scientist father goes missing at sea. Adaptation of Wendy Orr's novel (worked on by four writers, including the film's two directors, Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin) has enough action to sustain interest, though one gets the feeling early on the filmmakers were under pressure to include a lot of of silly comedy to please the family crowd. The characters are actually far more interesting than the predicaments the screenplay puts them in, making the final reel irrelevant. ** from ****

There are many family movies that I cringe at. Some of them take a best selling children's book but the studio felt a need to add some villains and perhaps some fart jokes. Some take legends (such as "The Night Before Christmas" by Clement Moore) and create a new story that is incompatible with all other film versions. Other times they are child-like in concept (such as a friendship between young prehistoric animals), good for toddlers, but not for their parents."Nim's Island" doesn't seem to suffer from any of those (although I admit I haven't read the book it is based on). I watched it without a child and enjoyed it, and I imagine a child would like it too. It can be enjoyed by both young and old.The tale is about the adventures of an 11 year old American girl, Nim (Abigail Breslin), who lives with her father on their own small private island in the South Pacific, a world expert on marine microorganisms. No other humans live on this tropical paradise. Trouble in paradise starts when a hurricane-like storm arrives unexpectedly while the father is away doing research at a nearby island. A second problem arises when a cruise line that doesn't realize anyone lives on the island wants to make it a stop where their passengers can experience an unspoiled pacific island, as spoiled by the cruise line.One of the things I liked about the plot was that the film made credible the amenities Nim and her father have on the isolated island (source of income, electricity, Internet, food and other supplies). The remarkable behavior of Nim's animal friends is an acceptable departure from reality; at least the animals don't speak English.One of Nim's pleasures is when the delivered supplies includes the latest adventure novel about a heroic adventurer named Alex Rover. Nim doesn't realize that the novels are fiction. The film often interjects what she and the novelist (played by Jodie Foster) back in San Francisco (who don't know each other) are imagining.I watched the film without knowing the cast in advance. I was surprised to recognize Jodie Foster as the novelist because this is not a serious A-list movie. Of course she was good in the part. What else do you expect?