Nappaland's MovieBlog

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NIM'S ISLAND (PG)

Plot Summary: Nim and her father live on a remote island in the South Pacific, but their island life is threatened when Nim’s father is lost at sea and Nim must defend their home.

Reason for the Rating: Mild adventure action and brief language.

Nim (Abigail Breslin) loves reading the adventure stories of Alex Roker and imagines all his brave escapades from her bed at home…although she lives quite an adventurous life of her own. Her father (Gerard Butler) is a marine biologist in search of a new species of nano-plankton, which means that they live alone on a volcanic island in the South Pacific. She lives a happy, Swiss Family Robinson-esque life, zipping across the island on her zip-line, communing with her sea lion and lizard friends, and eating mung-bean and mealworm stew.   

One day, Nim’s father sets out for a two-night journey to capture a once-in-a-lifetime bloom of nano-plankton (sounds fascinating…), and leaves Nim alone on the island. But her father is caught in a storm, and his ship is badly damaged, trapping him in the middle of nowhere. While he’s gone, he gets an email (yes, they have satellite internet) from the one and only Alex Roker, who is doing volcano research for the next book. Nim is delighted to hear from her favorite storybook adventurer, but on the other end of the computer isn’t the rough adventurous man she imagines, but the germophobic, agoraphobic writer, Alexandra Roker (Jodie Foster).

Alex slowly realizes that Nim is all alone on the island and hurt (having fallen while climbing the volcano for research), and determines that she must journey to the island to help Nim. The problem is that she hasn’t left her apartment in 16 weeks and can’t so much as turn her doorknob for fear of the germs and terrors that lurk outside it.

In the meantime, evil buccaneers discover Nim’s island…that is, evil operators of the cruise ship Buccaneer. Nim must defend their island from the onslaught of gaudy, littering Australian tourists, which she does with lizard catapulting, toxic sea lion gas, and faked volcanic eruptions.

Nim, her father, and Alex all are faced with tasks that require great courage, and each of them make the choice to do what they must to sacrifice for others.

The movie critic in me sees the plot errors in this movie—it’s predictable, it’s anticlimactic at times, it’s implausible, its pacing is often off. Little hiccups here and there in direction and plot and pacing disappoint the adult in me.

But the little girl in me wants to sit down with a huge bowl of popcorn and watch it again, imagining myself as the brave, adventurous girl, fending off pirates, rescuing those in distress, and brandishing my jungle machete. If I think back to movies such as Swiss Family Robinson, it wasn’t exactly perfect storytelling, but we still loved it. And I feel exactly the same about this movie. The little girl in me chooses to forgive the movie’s flaws and simply enjoy a good, light-hearted adventure full of visual beauty, adventure, and fun.

MOVIEBLOG RECOMMENDS:

Reminiscent of movies such as Swiss Family Robinson, this movie is a lot of fun, and the kids will surely enjoy it, while learning about the value of family, courage, and sacrifice.

AFTER THE SHOW: 

• Do you think you’re courageous? Why or why not?

• Jack says that courage is something that we learn every day, something that’s in every choice that we make. Tell about a time you made the choice to be courageous.

• What do you think it means to “be the hero of your own story”?

AV

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