NIM'S ISLAND
Directors: Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin
Studio: Walden Media
Principal Actors: Abigail Breslin, Gerard Butler, Jodie Foster
Running Time: 96 minutes
Rating: G
Released: 4 April 2008 

Reviewed By: Lauren (Port Moody Correspondent - Canada) 

Nim's Island has excellent potential to be the greatest family movie of the summer. Promoting great values and a wonderful story, this film will appeal to a wide variety of audiences.

Nim (Abigail Breslin) lives with her father Jack (Gerard Butler) on an "undiscovered" island located 20 degrees south and 162 degrees west, in the South Asiatic Sea (but don't tell anyone). Very close since her mother died, the pair have constructed both a house and a home on the island. With her friends Selkie the sea lion, Freddie the lizard, and Galileo the pelican, Nim wants for nothing. Every few months a supply ship meets them at sea to deliver items that Nim and Jack cannot make for themselves. Included in this care package is the latest Alex Rover novel, featuring the avid adventurer of the same name. What Nim doesn't know is that Alex Rover is wrote by Alexandra Rover (Jodie Foster), a "borderline" agoraphobic who hasn't left her house in over four months. When Jack is lost at sea and a private cruise line finds her island, Nim pleads for the famous Alex Rover to come and help her. Alexandra is encouraged by her hero Alex (embodied by Gerard Butler as well) to leave her apartment and take a plane, a smaller plane, a boat, a helicopter, and a cunning escape to help Nim. Alexandra must hurry to help Nim before she loses both her father and her island, while trying to overcome her fears and taste the world. 

Excellently cast, Nim's Island is a wonderful collection of many genres, with treasures for all audiences to enjoy. Produced by Walden Media, the studio of both Narnia films, the magical element of this story is very present. Visually creative, Nim's Island will please children and adults alike. Abigail Breslin does a wonderful job of portraying a girl who lives on an island paradise, and it is easy to lose oneself in the idea of such a life. The ever eye-pleasing Gerard Butler plays a great father to his daughter, and makes one sexy adventure hero. Jodie Foster gives a convincing act as an agoraphobic, maintaining her fear of all things outside world even as she journeys around the world to aid Nim.

The scenery in this film is gorgeous, and any chance of becoming a modern-day Swiss Family Robinson is thrown out of the window by a much more developed plot and the magical touch of Walden Media. This film is highly recommended for any audience in any mood, as it can be thoroughly enjoyed by all.