Review: Nim’s Island (DVD)
We were walking through Sam’s Club and a movie was playing on the big screen TV in the Blu-Ray section. There seems to be a weird back and forth with a woman on a computer and a young girl and the same man was in the background of both scenes talking to them. Hmmmm, looked interesting. We stood there for a few minutes until someone said “Nim” and we realized it was Nim’s Island. Checking out the movie section, we found that there wasn’t a copy for sale — not actually surprising just before Christmas so we went home and put it on our Netflix list and popped it to the top.
The movie, directed by Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin, stars Jodie Foster, Gerard Butler, Abigail Breslin, Michael Carman, Mark Brady, and others. The basic premise is that Nim lives with her marine biologist father, Jack, on an island in the South Pacific. They don’t let anyone know where the island is, even going out in their boat to meet the ships bring supplies. Jack goes out to a small atoll to collect specimens while Nim remains behind to make sure her friend the turtle’s eggs hatch and the babies survive. A huge storm comes up and Jack doesn’t come home as expected in two days. Meanwhile, a cruise ship approaches the island and the adventurer Alex Rover contacts Jack via email to ask about their volcano. Nim and Jack are fans of the Alex Rover novels so this gets Nim excited and she asks Alex for help. But Alex is a character in the novels written by Alexandra Rover who lives in San Francisco and is agoraphobia. Pathos, comedy, adventure, and a darn good movie ensues.
The movie is loosely based on the book, Nim’s Island by by Wendy Orr and illustrated by Kerry Millard. It seems to me, reading the book’s description, that the movie probably adhere more to the spirit rather than the letter of the book — but that’s just a guess since I haven’t had the pleasure of reading the book — yet.
Anyway, what I found interesting is the back and forth between Alex Rover, the fictional male adventure hero and Alex Rover, the writer of the character, and between Nim and Alex Rover the writer who she thought was the adventurer. The movie had so much going on that after watching it three times, I could have watched several more but had to send it back.
The director’s played the imagination of the characters wonderfully. Nim’s friends are a seal, a bearded dragon, a turtle, and a pelican. She has a very active imagination and a self-reliance very advanced for an eleven-year-old. She’s always active and never bored. When the new Alex Rover novel comes, she immediately dives in and we have a wonderful scene of her curled up in bed reading and the room disappears and she’s suddenly on the bed in the middle of the desert and the book’s action is going on all about her. On the other hand, Alex Rover the novelist actively talks to and interacts with her creation Alex Rover the adventurous hero of her books. We see her with all her neuroses and fears and yet when Nim calls for help, Alex goes to her aid.
It could be trite and all heartwarming but there a lot more going on that you’d expect. I’m sure children will enjoy the story at it’s surface level but there’s a lot more going on in the visuals as Alex travels to help Nim and Nim struggles to help herself survive while dreading the loss of her father. Do yourself a favor and if you can suspend belief and just enjoy, watch Nim’s Island. I think you’ll find it well worth the time.