Nim’s Island (2008)

Nim (Abigail Breslin) is an 11 year old girl living on an island paradise with her marine biologist dad (Gerard Butler). Beach is her playground, seals and albatrosses are her pets and her favourite fictional hero is Alex Rover (Gerard Butler again), the brave adventurer whose books she devours. (She also has full internet access despite the fact that the island is supposedly not on any maps, wonder who her ISP is?)

One day, dad goes off to look for some new breed of planktons and leaves Nim, rather irresponsibly, alone on the island for two nights. There’s a violent storm, he goes overboard and Nim finally acting like a regular 11 year old, freaks out when daddy doesn’t come home. She emails Alex Rover for help, not realizing that Alex Rover is actually Alexandra Rover (Jodie Foster), an agoraphobic novelist who is nothing like her fictional creation. Can Alexandra overcome her fears to help Nim?

There is a particular point in the movie where a character explains his rather obvious predicament, sentence by sentence, at which point a friend who accompanied me to the movie, sardonically remarked: “So this is the difference between a kids’ and an adult’s movie, they spell everything out for you.”

In another scene, a bunch of loud, caricatured tourists (Aussie at that) make an appearance and I thought: “Wow, they are so offensive and clichéd but it’s ok, it’s a kids movie and kids like over the top stuff, surely they’ll find it amusing.”

But you know what, “it’s a kids movie” is not an excuse for ordinary filmmaking.  There a plenty of great kids’ movies which are just as enjoyable for adults (ET, Whale Rider…) which leaves me to conclude that Nim’s Island is just not the best example of the genre. Still, there are plenty of likeable things about it too. The locations (Queensland) are beautiful, animals cute and of course, being the hero of your own story and drawing courage from within, are good messages indeed to impart on the little ones. I’m just saying it could have been executed better. 

Oh and if you’re wondering why a 27 year old adult and her 26 year old friend would go see a kids’ movie sans any kids in the first place… I’ve got two words for you. Gerard Butler. We’re fans, ok? Leave us alone.