Nim's Island - 3 smiles

“Nim’s Island” is about the journey three people take to find each other although much of the story’s narrative time is spent with Nim (Abigail Breslin). There’s plenty of humor, some action, and a lot of escapist pleasure. From Nim’s perspective, living on an island provides all kinds of fun and adventure: having resourceful pets that include a clever sea lion, an intelligent pelican and an expressive lizard, learning from her scientist father, mother nature and books, meeting her favorite author, and even rescuing her island from trespassers. But when her father is lost at sea, she turns to Alex Rover for help. For Alexandra Rover (Jodie Foster), Nim’s island represents the greatest challenge of her life. You see, Alex writes adventure stories and her hero, who is named Alex Rover, is much like Indiana Jones. Unfortunately, Alex the writer has agoraphobia and hasn’t been out of her San Francisco apartment in 16 weeks. Encouraged by her alter ego, the fictional Alex (Gerard Butler), Alex sets out to find and help the little girl she met via email. For Jack (also Gerard Butler), Nim’s father, getting lost at sea was not part of the plan when he set off on a plankton-finding mission. Unfortunately a storm threatens to prevent his return to Nim.

Breslin is full of self-confidence and resourcefulness and she gets to spend a good portion of her screen time setting up “Home Alone”-type booby traps to ward off a shipload of Australian tourists. She has a lot of charisma and you have to hope that young girls will identify with her courage and ingenuity. Foster’s character is involved with more slapstick than her fans might like, especially when you think about her role in “The Brave One.” Nonetheless, she proves to be versatile enough to pull it off. Butler is charming as Alex Rover, the explorer, and as Jack, his loving relationship with Nim is firmly established.

The most important thing that “Nim’s Island” demonstrates is that women are capable of taking care of themselves. Nim proves that she can fix the electricity, climb a volcano, and use a tool kit like any boy and Alexandra becomes an adventurer, just like the one she writes about. (4/4/08)