Rush hour? Traffic jams? Lines at the supermarket? Nim never heard of 'em. That's because where she lives, on a remote island in the South Pacific, there are no such things.
Nim's Island is a comic adventure about an island-dwelling girl and the best-selling author she summons in her hour of need.
Abigail Breslin plays Nim, an 11-year-old fan of the adventure novels of Alexandra Rover (played by Jodie Foster, right), creator of the literary globe-trotting hero, Alex Rover. Nim loses herself in the imaginative escapist tales, substituting the face of her dad for that of the iconic protagonist.
Her widowed scientist father, a marine biologist played by Gerard Butler, is a researcher of microscopic creatures, and the two of them are the only residents of their idyllic paradise. Their home is a tree hut and Nim's friends are the local animals -- a sea lion, a pelican, and a lizard, oh my!
When her father goes missing during a storm at sea and their island is threatened with the arrival of a buccaneer-themed cruise ship, she contacts reclusive author Alex(andra) Rover and asks for help.
Rover, although sympathetic to Nim's plight, is agoraphobic and hasn't left her San Francisco apartment in years. But she overcomes her many fears (well, she temporarily ignores them, anyway) and somehow manages to take a parade of vehicles and make her klutzy way to the titular location.
It should be what's-wrong-with-this-picture fun to see Foster play slapstick comedy, which she does here, because it's not something she has done much of during her storied, two-Oscar career. Now we know why: she's no good at it.
The co-writer-directors, real-life husband-and-wife Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin, working on an adaptation of the book by Wendy Orr along with screenwriters Joseph Kwong and Paula Mazur, mix comedy and pathos with a distinct lack of skill. Worse, they condescend to their young audience by either allowing or demanding painful overacting, and they tend to repeat gags and bits -- which aren't very good in the first place -- over and over.
They depend on the animals to be cute and the slapstick sequences to be funny. Are they? Not even close.
The three primary performers have minimal interaction, so there is a lot of talking to oneself, which gets old pretty fast. And as talented as Miss Breslin is, she cannot give the film what it unfairly asks of her. Add that to Foster's obvious discomfort doing physical comedy and you've got one supremely annoying family film.
As a children's film it does score points for promoting reading and writing and the use of imagination. But the production values are pedestrian at best. You can just feel the fanciful material being drained of its charm and magic as it gets transferred from the suggestive page to the literal screen.
And as the screenwriters make fun of obnoxious tourists, they miss the irony that it is the film itself that acts like one, and that it gets progressively worse until, by the final reels, it has turned into an amateurish community theatre production.
So we'll travel to 2 stars out of 4 for this strained and frenetic kidventure. Youngsters may respond to the cutesy wildlife on hand, but oldsters in attendance will find themselves longing to be voted off Nim's Island.
Movie Reviews - Week of 11/16/09
KYW movie critic Bill Wine gives his thoughts on the movies "Planet 51," "New Moon," and "The Blind Side." (3:02)
Movie Reviews - Week of 11/9/09
KYW movie critic Bill Wine gives his thoughts on the movies "Precious," "2012," and "Pirate Radio." (3:02)
Yada Yada Movies - Weekend of 11/13/09
This week KYW's Steve Nikazy and KYW movie critic Bill Wine take a look at the drama "Precious," the adventure disaster "2012," and the comedy "Pirate Radio." (17:24)
Yada Yada Movies - Weekend of 11/06/09
This week KYW's Steve Nikazy and KYW movie critic Bill Wine look at the comedy-war film, "The Men Who Stare at Goats," the animated re-make, "A Christmas Carol," and the horror-mystery-thriller "The Fourth Kind." (18:45)
Movie Reviews - Week of 11/2/09
KYW movie critic Bill Wine gives his thoughts on the movies "The Men Who Stare at Goats", "A Christmas Carol" and "The Fourth Kind". (3:01)
Yada Yada Movies - Weekend of 10/30/09
KYW's Steve Nikazy and KYW movie critic Bill Wine take a look at the Chris Rock documentary, "Good Hair," Michael Jackson's "This is It," and the action-crime-drama "The Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day." (17:43)
Movie Reviews - Week of 10/26/09
KYW movie critic Bill Wine gives his thoughts on the movies "Good Hair", "This Is It" and "Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day". (3:00)
Yada Yada Movies - Weekend of 10/23/09
KYW's Steve Nikazy and KYW movie critic Bill Wine take a look at the animated adventure "Astro Boy," the bio-drama"Amelia," and the action-adventure-comedy "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant." (17:20)
ADVERTISEMENT
Sponsored Links:
KYW-AM 1060 Newsradio is the Philadelphia market leader with more listeners
than any other radio station in the Delaware Valley and is an integral part
of community and daily life in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
Listen to KYW streaming online for up to the minute Philadelphia news,
Philadelphia traffic, Philadelphia weather and Philadelphia sports.
Subscribe to KYW podcasts for Philadelphia news on demand and listen to
selected live Philadelphia news events and news conferences. www.kyw1060.com
E-Mail Story
Print Story
Abigail Breslin plays Nim, an 11-year-old fan of the adventure novels of Alexandra Rover (played by Jodie Foster, right), creator of the literary globe-trotting hero, Alex Rover. Nim loses herself in the imaginative escapist tales, substituting the face of her dad for that of the iconic protagonist.
