Making Heroes, One Girl at a Time

I found in "Nim’s Island" an excellent antidote for the endless stream of kids’ movies that pile on gratuitous violence, relegate girls to supporting roles, throw in pop-culture references to seem cool, add smart-alecky animal sidekicks and otherwise hew to the tired Disney formula.

Instead, it offers not one, but two intrepid female heroines, a sophisticated premise, animal sidekicks that are smart but not smart-alecky and, while it adheres to certain tried-and-true formulas, they are those of classic children’s stories.

Nim (Abigail Breslin) has spent almost all her 11 years on a remote South Pacific Island with her scientist dad, Jack (Gerard Butler). He looks for protozoa under the sea; she prefers charismatic macrofauna such as her lizard, pelican and sea lion pals (real, by the way, no animatronic animals in this movie).

This is no Blue Lagoon, though — Jack and Nim communicate via satellite phone, light their house with a solar array, and can e-mail the mainland on their up-to-date computer — all of which Nim can not only handle with skill, but repair as needed with the gadgets on her tool belt.

Supplies to supplement their meals (of mealworms) arrive by boat, and one shipment includes the latest bestseller by swashbuckling adventurer Alex Rover, to the delight of Nim, who loves to read of Rover’s escapades in locales almost as exotic as her own.

Cut to a cluttered big-city apartment thousands of miles away, where the next Rover volume is underway. Only it’s not a leather-clad dude doing the writing, it’s a fussy, agoraphobic middle-aged woman (Jodie Foster) — Rover, it turns out, is her invention and alter-ego. She needs to find a way to rescue her namesake from boiling lava, so looks up an expert: Jack, who wrote an article about his island’s volcano. Just as she sends off an e-mail for some tips on lava-avoidance, Nim is wishing for some help herself: Jack has sailed off on a search for more sea creatures, straight into a monsoon, and isn’t answering his satellite phone.

The action contains plenty of child-pleasing slapstick, as well as looming dangers for the anxious housebound writer and the brave but frightened child to overcome. Alex is urged by her imaginary alter ego, (also played nicely by the very hunky Butler) to sail off to find and rescue Nim (only after a call to 911 gets her nowhere) while Nim, in a favorite plot twist of children’s literature, must fend for herself in the jungle.

There are quibbles: The movie spends too much time on Alex’s journey — her phobias aren’t as funny as the film makes them out to be — and not enough time is spent on Nim’s; and at the time time, Nim’s big challenge (other than missing her father), chasing a cruise ship full of clownish tourists away from her private paradise, is a little underwhelming. But her creative solution to this problem was the most exciting part to my child-size companions.

Breslin is completely believable as a smart and resourceful girl who can take care of herself but needs her dad too. Foster’s brittle intensity, often so grating, is right for a woman trapped by her fears. It might have been nice if she’d gotten to the island a little earlier in the movie so she had time to loosen up and join in Nim’s island adventures.

This film is ideal for an older pre-teen — girl or boy — who loves adventure and animal stories, and is particularly thrilling for girls, given the dearth of good stories about strong female heroines. It’s way too intense for younger children, though, or those who tend to be overwhelmed by noisy or frightening scenes — my almost 6-year-old spent long stretches of the movie in my lap, her head buried under my coat. (Though she, too, was delighted by the less scary parts.)

The imaginary Alex tells his creator, "Become the hero of your own story," a lovely message which makes for great conversation on the way home.

"Nim’s Island" is rated PG for mild adventure action and brief language.

It is playing at the Cineroms in Winsted and in Torrington, CT.