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Nim's Island

If the definition of a good family film is one that successfully appeals to all members of a family, no matter their ages, then this fun little picture meets the qualifications to be labeled a good family film.

Nim (Abigail Breslin) is a girl who lives on an island in the South Pacific with only her scientist father (Gerard Butler) and her animal friends as companions. After her father goes missing while conducting research at sea, Nim emails adventurer Alex Rover (also Butler) for help, but Rover is only a fictional character created by novelist Alexandra Rover (Jodie Foster), an agoraphobic and obsessive-compulsive who's urged by her own fictional creation to venture outside her home to the South Pacific to answer Nim's pleas for help.

Directors Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett, who previously collaborated on Little Manhattan with Levin as director and Flackett as writer, deliver a playful and laugh out loud adventure comedy with light fantasy trimmings. It's a successful throwback to the kind of live action family films Hollywood used to do so well once upon a time. Yes, that means it's fair to call it predictable and lightweight, but it's also funny enough and short enough to provide above average entertainment that the entire family can enjoy together. I enjoyed it on the escapist level it's intended to be taken at.

The screenplay by Levin, Flackett, Joseph Kwong (Growing Pains) and Paula Mazur is based on the novel by Wendy Orr, and if the plot summaries of the novel I've perused are accurate it appears to be a reasonably faithful adaptation.

Cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh (Bridget Jones's Diary, Æon Flux) provides the film with an appropriately bright and polished look, while production designer Barry Robison (Wedding Crashers, Rendition) creates a believable world for the characters to inhabit. The score by Patrick Doyle (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Eragon) is right at home with the material. Visual effects supervisor Scott Gordon makes good use of CGI to bring Nim's animal companions to life as wonderfully realized characters in their own right.

What really makes the story work as well as it does is its cast. Breslin, nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in 2006's Little Miss Sunshine, once again proves to be a capable and charming young actress who can carry a film and make you believe in her character. Foster takes on a rare comedic role and does just fine with the lighter material, also displaying a good knack for physical comedy when required. I disliked Butler's obnoxious performance in 300, but he's in good form here as both Nim's loving father and the fictional adventurer that exists inside the head of his creator. He's especially good as the latter, and one wishes they could make a spinoff film about that character. The principal actors all have nice chemistry with each other.

Also good are Michael Carman as the captain of a cruise ship, Anthony Simcoe as his first mate, Maddison Joyce as a young boy passenger on the ship who encounters Nim, Peter Callan and Rhonda Doyle as the boy's parents, and Jay Laga'aia as a helicopter pilot who helps Foster's character get to the island.

While Nim's Island hardly breaks new ground, it's an effective piece of family entertainment that succeeds at what it's trying to accomplish.

[3.5 out of 5 stars]