Movie Review: Nim's Island

  Nim's Island is children's movie slash adventure movie slash attempt at romantic comedy all rolled into one.  The premise of the movie is a tad bit difficult for a child to wrap their head around as it often feels like two separate story lines that attempt to come together in the last 10 minutes of the movie.

It starts with meeting Nim, an 11 year old girl, who lives on a secret island with her widowed father.  Her father spends most of his time away studying plankton while Nim "learns" about life through her animal friends and her love of reading Indiana Jones-esque adventure novels.  When her father decides to take a 2-day trip to study plankton, Nim insists on staying behind at the island to help her sea turtle friend hatch eggs.  The first night away, there is a terrible storm and her father is lost to sea.  Leaving Nim all alone on her private island. 

Cut to meeting Alexandra Rover, the agoraphobic author of the book's Nim loves, who is having writer's block on her latest "Alex Rover" novel.  She comes across an article written by Nim's father and decides to email him about the volcano on her island in order to develop her plot line.  Nim responds to the email and the two strike up a email conversation. 

After another night of her father not returning and a cruise ship finding the island to use as a tourist destination, Nim desperately emails Alex Rover to come save her and her island.  Alexandra then has to conquer her fears to get half way across the world to save Nim. 

There is a lot of slapstick comedy that keep my son entertained.  The storm scene did mildly frighten him but it was over quickly.  The shots from the island often felt like they were stolen from a moder-day Swiss Family Robinson set.  I doubt that my son realized the message of conquering your fears. 

At times, it does try to tell too many stories (the relationship between a tween girl and her father, the recluse writer's struggle to come out, Nim’s quest to save her island from exploitation), but I found all of this forgivable.   Afterall, it's the farting sea lion and flying lizards that will leave a lasting impact on my son.

Nim’s Island isn’t the perfect movie by far, and there are some moments that might annoy anyone over the age of ten.  All in all, I say it is a great family film.   

Comments

[mod*momm]

thank you for the review. i was wondering about that movie. sometimes i feel like that alex(andra) rover, with my real identity + my blogger identity :)

now i'm wondering about the father lost at sea, but since you said it was a romantic comedy, i'm guessing he gets together with the author :)