ADVENTURE; 1hr 36min
STARRING: Abigail Breslin, Jodie Foster, Gerard Butler
Sea world: Breslin
Eleven-year-old Nim (Breslin) is a kind of Mowgli of the glittering seas and the island on which she lives is a piece of paradise in this jazzy kids’ adventure (Queensland’s Gold Coast and Hinchinbrook Island stand in for the South Pacific). Nim’s sun-splashed days are fancy-free, alone with her marine-biologist dad (Butler) and her sea lion, lizard and pelican buddies. Her literary idol is laddish adventurer Alex Rover (Butler again). But little does Nim know that Alex is really agoraphobic San Franciscan writer Alexandra (Foster), whose imagination is her entire world. And just as the sea is a fickle mistress and everyone wants a piece of paradise, so when Nim’s father is lost at sea, the shut-in writer and the solitary child forge an email connection that — not to sound like a tagline — will change them both forever.
It’s a novelty to see Foster lighten up, which she does with her usual pedigreed aplomb. This isn’t a movie you would imagine her making, but she makes it a cool and unusual choice.
