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Nim's Island (2008)

Director: Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin

Time Out rating

Average user rating

16 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Nim (Abigail Breslin) is an 11-year-old girl living with her scientist father (Gerard Butler) on a remote island in the fictional South Asiatic Sea, and her only contact with the outside world is through email and a series of novels purportedly written by tough-guy adventurer, Alex Rover. So when Nim’s father is lost at sea, she naturally calls out to her hero for rescue. But the real Alex Rover is quite different: agoraphobic, clean-freak Alexandra (Jodie Foster) hasn’t left her San Francisco home in six years.

One could argue that the makers of ‘Nim’s Island’ are rather irresponsible: the island is a health and safety nightmare, crawling with wildlife and festooned with rickety rope bridges, vertiginous cliffs and even an active volcano. Nim’s supposedly perfect father has no reservations about leaving his pre-pubescent daughter alone for a few days while he goes off to study marine plankton, with only a farting sealion for companionship: the film’s debt to ‘Home Alone’ is evident, but this time the parental abandonment is entirely intentional.

Husband and wife writer-director team Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett were responsible for 2006’s winsome ‘Little Manhattan’, but their work here is far more muscular: solidly mainstream and surprisingly dark. For older viewers, the film is riddled with flaws: the story is pat, the ending laughable, and Jodie Foster’s attempts at physical comedy are cringeworthy at best. But for younger viewers this is a perfectly serviceable distraction, pacy and packed with incident, engagingly simplistic, with a winningly proactive heroine.

Author: Tom Huddleston

Time Out London Issue 1967: May 2 - 9, 2008

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User reviews of this film

Someone said...

Posted on May 15 2009 15:13 All those who say it's great.. It's not. It sucks one of the most ridiculous and pointless films ever made.

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n.c said...

Posted on Jun 22 2008 10:34 the best ffilm i have ever watched i went to see it yesterday with my mates and i thought it was fabulous i loved it!!!

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usman khawaja said...

Posted on Jun 19 2008 07:58 aflight of fantasy that almost takes off
i think i agree with everyone partially ,it is genuinely miscast ,nobly intended and preciously tedious,the pacing is too slow for an adveture ,the humor rather vapid for a comedy and the island too charming for the mock horror it tries to recreate sporadically.
the juxtaposition of the three main characters who unintentionally are heading for an extra-terrestrial union somewhere in the pacific is a mixed bag of the travails of an agoraphobic foster ,who is brilliant at times and yet surprisingly mediocre with her comedy ,breslin is being typecast now and butler can only smile or grimace ,any expectations of him becoming an actor are futile .
this becomes a satire on air travel with jodie being harassed and bullied in a hilarious manner by the airport security,it was refreshing to see someone reacting to my misery at airports,the stranded boat with butler was precarious and dull,the bucaneer cruise ship was a clever comment on the evils of tour companies and corporates pillaging the pristine global premises.
but all this was executed with rather a half -hearted ,insipid ,almost mecanical indifference -as if this was just an obligatory impersonal project and it shows in the final tally ,as a tale of an 11 year old lonely girl surrounded with droll lizards and dancing seals, becomes only a vehicle to arraign a blind date for her widower dad and an agoraphobic author from san francisco who is inexplicably behaving like an 11 year old in some really irritating sequences -not amusing ,because this could have been a rather provocative comment on environment ,loneliness ,isolation and natural preservation which is a crucial issue but instead it becomes a rather silly adventure with indifferent acting and stereotypes ,
the volcanic eruption was too silly to take seriously as was jodi's escape from the ship.
but it just indulges itself to become an average attempt at pleasing kids with flying lizards instead -tather a lost oppurtunity ,albeit my 9 year old enjoyed it -so i am sure kids were the target in this ambitious venture which is ho-hum .
usman khawaja

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boogerblaster said...

Posted on Jun 15 2008 12:31 im 61 and i thought it was better than winnie poo goes to london which is great

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Kara said...

Posted on Jun 07 2008 21:03 I Am going to see this film tmz with my mates.. :D it seems good .. i have always wanted to see this film
i will post tmz when i have seen in ..x

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Mariam said...

Posted on Jun 07 2008 14:25 It looks amazing!!! People r stupid if they dont like it. Ive not seen it but it looks awsome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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AG said...

Posted on May 31 2008 13:52 we have never seen it so we dont know bu it sounds alrightt xx

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Hanna xx said...

Posted on May 25 2008 17:44 this film is da bomb!!!!
exelent!!!
x

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Aalihya said...

Posted on May 25 2008 10:39 i think this film was absolutely bobbins! it's cheesey, too perfect and setting a bad example if you look at it! Don't waste ur money guyz! <3

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Lee said...

Posted on May 25 2008 09:30 It was an excellent movie, I think it deserves 6 stars, would recommend it no problem.

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person said...

Posted on May 24 2008 15:14 if anyone thinks it is really bob then they are wrond.who ever puts bad comments then that is silly coz it is fantastic!

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kris said...

Posted on May 24 2008 15:12 i am going to watch the film today.... it looks fantastic!!i bet lots of people will like it .me and my dad will enjoy it.it looks funny.i dont no what other people will think bit i think it looks really good.

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alice said...

Posted on May 22 2008 06:58 i havent seen the film yet but me and my mates are going on friday -notin better is on ]
what should we choose?

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Natalie said...

Posted on May 18 2008 16:59 I really wanted to see this film but i regret seeing it now ! I took my little cousin as we both thought it would be good but obviously not ! It was the worst thing ever my 10 year old cousin actually fell asleep half way through ! She wouldnt budge at all. I tell you now.. NEVERRR watch this film your wasting time and money TRUST ME !!!

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jill collins said...

Posted on May 15 2008 21:33 was very unsure about seeing this movie after reading many bad reviews but I am glad I did!! myself and my partner took our 11 year old grandson and we all enjoyed it . it is a great family movie which i would highly recommend, its funny and its great to see all the weird and wonderful animals and as usual jodie foster was brilliant.

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