Movie Review Nim's Island

Nim's Island (2008) 

Directed by Jennifer Flackett

Written by Joseph Kwong, three other screenwriters

Starring Jodie Foster, Abigail Breslin, Gerard Butler 

Release Date April 4th, 2008

Published April 3rd, 2008

Jodie Foster hasn’t been known as a comedian since her mischievous youth as a Disney star. Her career changed forever with Taxi Driver and since that time, her comic roles have been few and far between. The surprise of her comic talents, lying dormant since her sassy performance in Maverick more than a decade ago, makes her slapstick heavy comic performance in the family flick Nim’s Island something of a delight. Though the film overall is a slight, messy mixture of Home Alone crossed with Fantasy Island, Foster makes it tolerable and occasionally delightful with her constantly surprising performance.

Alex Rider is an Indiana Jones like character and a hero to young Nim (Abigail Breslin) who lives for his adventures like some kids live for the next American Idol. Living on a deserted island in the south pacific with her dad Jack (Gerard Butler), Nim doesn’t have a TV or video games like most kids so her Alex Rider novels and her many animal friends are her entertainment. When her marine biologist father has to go away for a few days, Nim is left to care for an animal friend about to give birth. That is when an email arrives from her hero Alex Rider asking her about the wonders of her island, he’s researching his next big adventure.

Or should I say, her next big adventure. You see, Alex Rider is actually Alexandra Rider (Jodie Foster) an agoraphobic writer who, despite imagining some amazing adventures, has not left her home in years. When she hits on a bout of writer's block she turns to the writing of Jack, Nim’s dad, who wrote an article about volcanoes that Alex thinks could make an exciting adventure. Her email finds Nim and the two begin a friendly correspondence. However, when Nim reveals that her father has gone missing there is only one thing for Alexandra to do, she must find the courage to leave her home for the first time in years and find some way to get to Nim.

Directed by newcomers Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin, Nim’s Island is a sweet, safe bit of disposable family entertainment. Abigail Breslin, the Little Miss Sunshine Oscar nominee, is her usual cute self but it is Jodie Foster who steals the movie with her wildly offbeat performance. Chatting often out loud to her fictional character Alex Rider (Gerard Butler again), she goes all out allowing herself to look completely nutzo and somehow it works. Her chemistry with Breslin is motherly and very sweet, this is a very different Jodie Foster from the hard bitten New Yorker of The Brave One.

If only Nim’s Island were more focused on Foster and Breslin’s chemistry. Unfortunately, the film diverts with a subplot about a ship called Buccaneer, a group of ugly tourists and Nim pulling a Macauley Culkin to keep bad guys from turning her home into a tourist trap. This subplot is distracting and meant only as very obvious filler material. More time with Foster and Breslin and less time with goofball subplots and Nim’s Island could be so much more than just merely distracting.

Good, not great, Nim’s Island is above par family entertainment that should be much better than it is.