Nim’s Island Review (2008)

September 17, 2008January 4, 2018 Dave Abigail Breslin, Alphonso McAuley, Gerard Butler, Jennifer Flackett, Jodie Foster, Joseph Kwong, Maddison Joyce, Mark Levin, Morgan Griffin, Nim's Island, Nim's Island Review, Paula Mazur, Wendy Orr

Summary: Anything can happen on Nim’s Island, a magical place ruled by a young girl’s imagination. It is an existence that mirrors that of her favorite literary character, Alex Rover – the world’s greatest adventurer. But Alexandra, the author of the Rover books, leads a reclusive life in the big city. When Nim’s father goes missing from their island, a twist of fate brings her together with Alexandra. Now they must draw courage from their fictional hero, Alex Rover, and find strength in one another to conquer Nim’s Island.

Year: 2008

Australian Cinema Release Date: 3rd April, 2008

Australian DVD Release Date: 17th September, 2008

Country: USA

Director: Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin

Screenwriter: Jospeh Kwong, Paula Mazur, Mark Levin, Jennifer Flackett, Wendy Orr (novel)

Cast: Abigail Breslin (Nim Rusoe), Gerard Butler (Jack Rusoe/Alex Rover), Jodie Foster (Alexandra Rover), Morgan Griffin (Alice), Maddison Joyce (Edmund), Alphonso McAuley (Russell)

Runtime: 96 mins

Classification:PG

Dave Griffiths’s ‘Nim’s Island’ Review:

Originally appeared on www.helium.com

In 2008 the family film ‘Nim’s Island’ became a surprise hit and since then the film has become a favourite for families world-wide. To its credit the film’s strong environmental message comes through loud and clear but it is a mistake to think that the film is absolutely perfect because it sadly does have some glaring problems that prevent it from becoming a great film.

Based on a series of adventure novels written by Wendy Orr for a teenage market ‘Nim’s Island’ follows Nim (Abigail Breslin) a young girl who lives on a deserted island with her father Jack Rusoe (Gerard Butler) who is a world famous marine biologist.

When Jack goes missing at sea Nim panics and reaches out to one of her heroes, the legendary adventurer Jack Rover (also played by Gerard Butler), but instead finds herself talking to Jack’s creator, the agoraphobic author Alexandra Rover (Jodie Foster). And while Alexandra desperately tries to get to Nim to help her Nim finds herself busy as she tries to protect her island from a invasion by the crew and passengers of a cruise ship, including the inquisitive Edmund (Maddison Joyce). Nim’s greatest fear being that this is the start of the island becoming a tourist mecca.

Directors Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin do a wonderful making ‘Nim’s Island’ look beautiful on the big screen but you do have to question why they allowed actors such as Peter Callan and Rhonda Doyle to over-act so badly. Yes children love characters to be over the top but the style Callan and Doyle use in this film is so over the top that their performances suspend the film’s believability whenever they are on the screen. Young Maddison Joyce also tries hard but is also mis-directed, but at least his performance isn’t as bad as Callan and Doyle’s.

Luckily the film leaves that problem completely in its wake and is genuinely entertaining while still managing to teach its audience a lot about some very important environmental issues. The film’s storyline also manages to mix its human characters with some pretty talented performers of the animal variety – and you’ll certainly be remembering Selkie the very intelligent sea lion for a long time after watching the film.

This really was the film that launched the career of a very young Abigail Breslin and it’s not surprising that she went on to bigger and better things. She puts in a wonderful performance in the role of the feisty Nim and seems to take anything that is thrown at her. Jodie Foster also steps up with ‘Nim’s Island’ and revealed that she was more than capable of mixing comedy and drama together when she needed to. Sadly thought the plot leaves the talented Gerard Butler very under used.

‘Nim’s Island’ delivers a strong message that every young person needs to hear at least once in their film. The film looks beautiful and the performances of Abigail Breslin and Jodie Foster easily overshadow some of the weaker performances of other cast members. At the end of the day though it is easy to see how this film has become a family favourite.

Other Subculture Media Reviews of ‘Nim’s Island′: Nil

Rating: 2.5/5

IMDB Rating:

Trailer: