Nim's Island is a 2008 American film directed by Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin. The film stars Abigail Breslin, Jodie Foster, and Gerard Butler. The story is an adventure-fantasy film based on the book Nim's Island by Wendy Orr, a Canadian-born Australian writer. A young girl, Nim, seeks help from the author of her favorite adventure series when her scientist father goes missing. Nim, though, lives on an island in the South Pacific. The author, Alexandra Rover, is an agoraphobic living in San Francisco. Rover overcomes her fears and sets out in search of Nim while Nim tries to overcome her fear of losing her father. In the meantime, a cruise ship company threatens to invade Nim's island with uncouth tourists. The film was released on April 4, 2008.
Plot
Nim (Abigail Breslin) is an 11-year-old girl, whose mother named Emily has died. Her father Jack Rusoe (Gerard Butler), a marine biologist, said she was swallowed by a blue whale after it was scared by a ship called the Buccaneers. She lives on an island in the South Pacific. She has some local animals for company: Selkie the sea lion, Fred the bearded dragon, Chicca the turtle, and Galileo the pelican. Jack goes by boat on a scientific mission of two days to find protozoa Nim (a new species of plankton); he wants to take her along, but she convinces him that she needs to stay to oversee the imminent hatching of Chicca's eggs and can manage on her own; they will be able to communicate by satellite phone.
Nim, who is fond of Alex Rover adventure books written by Alexandra Rover (Jodie Foster), receives an email addressed to her father with an inquiry about his field of knowledge. The sender "Alex Rover" seems to be the explorer, but is actually Alexandra, a neurotic San Franciscan who constantly sees her character Alex Rover (also Gerard Butler). An email conversation follows, where Nim first poses as her father's assistant and then goes to the volcano on the island to see what's inside it and is hurt in the process.
Jack suffers a shipwreck, which makes it impossible for Nim and Jack to communicate. Also, he does not return on the planned date. Throughout the movie, Galileo brings Jack things he needs to fix his ship. Nim explains the situation to "Alex". Although she suffers from agoraphobia and therefore never leaves the house or even opens the door, she travels to the island to rescue Nim.
The island is visited by tourists, taken by Nim to be pirates. Without exposing herself, she scares them away by catapulting lizards at them and making it look like volcano is about to erupt. One of the tourists, a spoiled rich boy named Edmund, follows her and sees her. He is confused by her presence, and believes her to be another tourist. But when he tells the others, he isn't believed and punished from his GameBoy and television for a month by his parents for leaving them. The tourists leave. Alex arrives by helicopter at the tourists' boat and tells about her rescue mission. The tourists do not believe that a girl is on the island, but Edmund tells her what he had seen. Encouraged, Alex goes to the island and is saved by Nim from drowning. At first Nim doesn't want her to stay, but eventually allows her. Later Jack arrives on a raft still holding the plankton, and he and Alexandra fall in love.
Cast
Critical reception
The film received mixed reviews from critics. As of April 10, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 49% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 80 reviews.[6] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 55 out of 100, based on 23 reviews.[7]
Box office performance
In its opening weekend, Nim's Island grossed $13.3 million in 3,513 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #2 at the box office behind 21.[8] The film had a domestic box office gross of $48,006,762 surpassing its $37 million budget, according to Box Office Mojo and a foreign gross of 52,069,700 and total of $100,076,462 worldwide.
Home Media Release
Nim's Island was released on DVD on August 5, 2008. It opened at #1 at the DVD sales chart, selling 466,326 DVD units which translates to $8,389,200 in revenue. As per the latest figures, 1,013,100 DVD units have been sold, acquiring revenue of $18,188,600.[9]
Soundtrack
The score to Nim's Island was composed by award-winning composer Patrick Doyle. He recorded his score with the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Sony Scoring Stage during the week of February 3, 2008. This marked the first time in a decade that he has recorded a score in Los Angeles.[10]
The song playing over the closing credits is Beautiful Day by U2.
The film's soundtrack CD was released on April 8, 2008 from Varèse Sarabande.[11]
References
External links
