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Nim's Island

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 24 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 11 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Adventure | Comedy | Family/Kids
Written by:
Mark Levin
Jennifer Flackett
Directed by:
Mark Levin
Jennifer Flackett
Release Date:
Theatrical: April 4, 2008
DVD: August 5, 2008
Running Time: 96 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG for mild adventure action and brief language
Starring Jodie Foster, Abigail Breslin, Gerard Butler, and Alphonso McAuley
Anything can happen on Nim's Island, a magical place ruled by a young girl's imagination. It is an existence that mirrors that of Nim's favorite literary character, Alex Rover, the world's greatest adventurer. But Alexandra, the author of the Rover books, leads a reclusive life in the big city. When Nim's father goes missing from their island, a twist of fate brings her together with Alexandra. Now, they must draw courage from their fictional hero, Alex Rover, and find strength in each other to conquer Nim's Island. (Fox Walden)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
Exhilarating and enchanting family picture. It's the best I've seen this year and highly recommended for girls and for boys, too.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Leah Greenblatt
It's hard to imagine kids not enjoying the good-hearted, lovingly shot fantasy of it all, and Breslin is charming, though most viewers past puberty will likely yearn to be voted off the Island.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Tasha Robinson
For all its limitations, the film still looks terrific. Flawless CGI and forays into animation keep things visually lively, and Nim’s enviable life is likely to hook kids into the story early and keep them entranced.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Some nice scenery, an unexpectedly funny performance by Jodie Foster and a unflaggingly spunky Abigail Breslin make for above average family entertainment.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
This family comedy adventure from Walden Media is likable in a scruffy way. Its characters, especially the youngest one, are engaging, and few adults are immune to childhood fantasies about secluded tropical isles.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Even as the derivative roots of Nim's Island are clearly visible, kids will no doubt vicariously enjoy Nim's adventures and Edenic existence. And how refreshing, for once, to see a girl embark on derring-do that, in Nim's own words, makes her the hero of her own story.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Boys adventure stories are a dime (store novel) a dozen, but girls adventure tales are rare things indeed.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
An entertaining, diverting adventure saga that offers excitement and a relatable heroine for children, and also will remind their parents of favorite classics from their own youth.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
If you're an elementary schooler or someone who finds Gerard Butler irresistible even when fully clothed, Nim's Island may be a treat to watch. If not, it's likelier to be a chore.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Breslin, so memorable in "Little Miss Sunshine," suffers the most. Skilled and reactive with humans, she doesn't quite muster the same engagement with her finned and flippered costars here.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
There's nothing especially wrong with Nim's Island, but there's not a lot right about it either.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
8- to 12-year-olds will have a good time, and you'll have a good time watching them have a good time. Otherwise, the film's an oddity.
Read Full Review >Empire Helen O'Hara
Smarter than it sounds and carried by a very funny performance by Foster, this is a kids’ movie that’s bearable for adults too.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Robert Wilonsky
Despite its formula and flaws (chief among them Foster’s sitcom-campy performance), Nim’s Island is a perfectly pleasant, agreeably innocuous ’tweener adventure film.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Such an air of dumbness hovers over the movie, and it's all played so broadly that nothing about it is remotely believable.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis
Sweet but ho-hum adaptation of Wendy Orr’s novel, a comedy-adventure that never quite finds its tone.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
Foster seems to be having real fun, twitching and skittering around, that steel jaw of hers comically tense. But this family movie shouldn't be about a shut-in trying to get from A to B; it needs to be about an unconventional girl growing up and helping an equally unconventional grownup cut loose on a volcanic island. Sadly, Nim's Island is a missed opportunity.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Directors Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin deliver some eye-catching fantasy sequences in the early scenes, but the film grows more mundane and the tone more uneven as it goes on.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Tasha Robinson
The premise, from the book by Wendy Orr, is terrific, but the execution seems designed to make all but the youngest viewers fling copies of the book at the screen in frustration.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
Three stories in one. This might be two stories too many.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
You begin yearning for more cuteness from the anthropomorphic animals: a pelican, a sea lion and, best of all, a bearded dragon lizard. They're a lot more amusing than Foster, who pours on the angst.
Read Full Review >Variety Justin Chang
A picturesque adventure-comedy that quickly capsizes under the weight of its obnoxious slapstick, pedestrian dialogue and general unwillingness to rise above stock ideas and situations.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
The movie's dated, stereotypical comedy often contradicts its wholesome intentions, coming across as laboriously cutesy and occasionally perverse.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.1 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Katie D. gave it a10:
I liked Nim's Island because my favorite part was the flying lizards! Katie, age 6.
Jay H. gave it a6:
Okay, so it's nothing great, but it's fun, entertaining, well made and enjoyable. Good cinematography. Imaginative and fun, a bit too far fetched. Good acting, but Abigail Breslin's performance is stiff and unenthusiastic.
Ari N. gave it a9:
It was a cool movie. I liked it because it was a thriiler adventuere. I really thought it should have gotten a better review. -ari
Decepticon Pom gave it a1:
I've been seeing plenty of family movies with my nephew and niece recently and enjoyed some surprisingly decent romps but this is meanderring tosh! Jodie Foster is squandered on a potentially great role that ultimately serves no purpose whatsoever than to hang a tugidly flimsy and unexplored possible romance in the last 5 seconds. Garbage!
Tony B. gave it a9:
A marvelous fantasy with outstanding performances by Abigail Breslin and a revelatory Jodie Foster.
Chad S. gave it a7:
Who the hell does Jack Rusoe(Gerald Butler) think he is? MacGyver? "Nim's Island" comes equipped with two teams of screenwriters. Maybe, just maybe, the original pair of scribes preferred that Nim Rusoe(Abigail Breslin) be given the "Castaway" treatment, rather than have "Nim's Island" be a sort of "Home Alone on a Deserted Island", especially when the loner girl shoos away a boatload of tourists. For dramatic purposes, her father should be kept off-screen for the duration that he's lost at sea. But, alas, "Nim's Island" is a children's movie. And yet, Jodie Foster gives such an inspired comedic performance as a reclusive Emily Dickinson-type writer, a tension is created between the two narratives, because Alexandra Rover's story seems aimed at adults. Since Foster raises the game, you'll want Nim to exhibit the same psychological realism as Alexandra, an agraphobic, who's forced to become a hero like her alter-ego. But the island-alone girl never seems truly terrified at her prospects of being a sudden orphan. Neither do we, because "Nim's Island" includes Jack's progress with his leaky boat. There's never any doubt about his safety thanks to an anthromorphic(read: Disneyesque) pelican. It's a shame that the filmmakers didn't give the target audience a little more credit and throw more harm towards Nim's way, because Foster gives an Oscar-caliber performance in what essentially becomes a throwaway film.
