Nim's Island

Another above average children's film from Walden Media, the company behind the Narnia films, The Water Horse and Bridge to Terabithia (not to mention The Seeker).

Based on a novel by Australian author Wendy Owen, this is a Robinson Crusoe/Swiss Family Robinson story, crossed with a bit of Romancing The Stone, and a subplot about a mariner struggling to survive after his yacht is capsized by a tropical storm.

That leaves his ten-year-old daughter Nim Rusoe (Abigail Breslin) on her own, marooned on the tiny Pacific island that has been their home for as long as she remembers.

Luckily she's a remarkably resilient, self-possessed child. She has her friends (a sea lion, a pelican, and a bearded dragon). More importantly, she has a solar powered iMac, and the email address of her favourite author-adventurer, Alex Rover. It's the most natural thing in the world to expect him to come to her rescue.

What Nim doesn't understand is that Alex ' an Indiana Jones type hero who always emerges unscathed from the most perilous predicaments ' is just a fictional figment of agoraphobic author Alexandra Rover (Jodie Foster).

The writer and the child share an image of Alex as a rugged, rough hewn charmer who looks a lot like Nim's shipwrecked dad (both men are played by Gerard Butler), but while this fantasy figure pops up on the sidelines occasionally to urge his creator to face her fears, he's not much in the way of practical help.

Co-directors Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett ' and DP Stuart Dryburgh ' weave between fantasy and reality with some elegance (there's a lovely scene when Nim becomes so engrossed in one of Alex's escapades it seems to be playing out in her bedroom). There are also a handful of beautiful animated sequences, the fairytale version of the death of Nim's mom, as told by her father.

If anything, it's over-loaded with incident, though I have to admit, I can't recall the last time I heard my kids complain about a movie having too much going on. The island itself looks beautiful, and comes complete with a very natty bamboo hut, a volcano, and zip lines through the trees.

No wonder that when a cruise ship lands a bunch of Aussie tourists on the immaculate white sandy beach, Nim does her utmost to repel these dastardly 'pirates'.

Presumably Jodie Foster signed on in support of the script's plucky young heroine (children's movies still seem unduly weighted in favour of the boys). Nim is the kind of gal she used to play in her child star days. It also gives her a chance to do comedy after a series of heavy dramatic roles (The Brave One, Flightplan, Panic Room).

Like everything else, she plays it to the hilt, pratfalling like a trouper. The technique is impressive, but for my money comedy works better with a lighter, less self-conscious approach.

Another actor who has been known to overdo it, Butler is actually quite agreeable in his complimentary roles here, not exactly guying Harrison Ford's Indy, but certainly winking in that direction.

The movie loses some of its charm on the last leg of the journey, but it's certainly recommended for that adventuresome 6-12 age group.

Tom Charity
tom.charity@lovefilm.com