Nim’s Island

While not entirely successful in the execution, one has to give a little leeway to a family film that is geared toward pre-teen girls. Here we have young Nim (little miss sunshine Abigail Breslin) who lives on an uncharted island with her biologist father (Gerard Butler). When the father is lost at sea, Nim turns to the author of her favorite series of adventure books (Jodie Foster) to help recover him. Trouble is, the author is nothing at all like the rough-’n’-ready hero of the stories she writes. (Hmm … wonder where that one is gonna go.) The characters are pretty cardboard for anyone past their tweens, the direction is pretty stale, the script is a bit too patronizing (too much telling when they’re already showing) but as these things go Nim’s Island is pretty painless for the escorts of the target audience. It’s also a nice change of pace to see Jodie Foster lighten up and stop pretending to kill dudes to prove how butch she is.