Rated PG for mild adventure action and brief language
Directed by Mark Levin (Little Manhattan) and Jennifer Flackett (both wrote Journey to the Center of the Earth)
Starring Abigail Breslin, Gerard Butler, and Jodie Foster
Nim's Island may be a clean family movie, but it was way too cheesy for me.
A young girl (Abigail Breslin) inhabits an isolated island with her scientist father (Gerard Butler) and several animals. While her dad is at sea exploring a new species, Nim begins to communicate with her action-adventure hero, Alex Rover (also Gerard Butler) who is really Alexandra Rover (Jodie Foster), a reclusive author of the best-selling novels. At Alex’s requests Nim explores a dormant volcano and injures herself. It’s then that Nim's father goes missing and Alexandra must draw courage from the fictional hero to conquer Nim's Island.
The story itself is Home Alone meets Swiss Family Robinson. Watching this movie reminded me of those old Disney “B” movies like the Herbie films and The Incredible Journey. It has it’s cute, well-trained animals and kids doing adult things with no real dangers or any true reality.
We get a pretty concise back story during the opening credits concerning what happened to Nim’s mom with the help of some cool drawings and a voice-over. As the movie opens, we find Nim and her dad alone in paradise. Nim names the island after herself and in no time at all feels right at home. She quickly adopts a family: there is the dancing sea lion named Selkie, a lizard named Fred, and Galileo… a pelican who obviously understands every conversation with Nim. In fact, it seems Nim can talk and understand the animals even though they just grunt back. It’s all very Lassie-like.
As far as the cast goes, I really need a break from Abigail Breslin. It seems like she is in every movie and although she’s good, it’s getting to be too much for me. Jodi Foster is just embarrassing in this one, whether she is dancing or acting crazy, it didn’t work and it was just awkward. And finally, I just kept waiting for Gerard Butler to yell “SPARTA”… which never happened.
My daughter Brianna read the book and she said the book was far better than the movie. Although she loved the story, the adventure and the characters; we agreed the movie did not do it justice. I really wanted to give this family friendly movie a better score… but “Only if Free” was the best I could do.
SHOULD KIDS SEE IT?
Although strange, there is nothing offensive and I am certain most younger kids (5-10) will like it.
Conversation Starter
Three Simple Questions (with Answers You May Be Looking for):
- What are some of the messages or themes you observed in this movie?
- How do you suppose we—as serious Christ-followers—should react to this movie?
- How can we move from healthy, Bible-based opinions about this movie to actually living out those opinions?
