Movie Review: “Nim’s Island”

Was a fairly quiet day, and happened to look online at the movie listings on News and Observer, saw that Nim’s Island was playing at a theater nearby. We’d just had dinner and made mention of it to my Dad. With Mom’s encouragement, he and I set out to see this enchanting little adventure.

It really is a movie the entire family could and would enjoy. We got there just as the previews were showing and it was sad to see that the entire seating was empty save for the two of us. About 5 minutes later, a single family joined us in our viewing. I must admit, having almost the entire theater to ourselves was liberating in that I didn’t have to worry about my laughter upsetting the people around me.

I loved it. I’d give it 3 out of 4 stars just like the reviewer did for N&O. It had imagination, adventure, family values without being cloying about it and it had that darling cutie, Abigail Breslin. She’s been cropping up in tons of movies of late, and she already has an impressive list of well acted movies to her name. I enjoyed her character of Nim and all her animal friends, especially Fred the lizard. He made me laugh a lot throughout the entire movie. Plus, I think Jodie Foster put in an excellent performance as well. Her agoraphobia was thoughtful and it reminded me of the author in Stranger Than Fiction, Karen Eiffel played by Emma Thompson. Though Emma’s character left her home, she seemed removed from the people around her, similar to how Jodie’s character ‘Alex’andra Rover was about herself.

Alex and Nim had much in common, that they wanted isolation from the world around them. Keeping their home to themselves and letting their imaginations run free. Something every person should strive to do.

All in all, I think when this movie comes out on DVD, it will be going into the family collection.

Tags: movie review