Nim's Island

Nim's Island
Directed by	Jennifer Flackett Mark Levin
Produced by	Paula Mazur
Screenplay by	Joseph Kwong Paula Mazur Mark Levin Jennifer Flackett
Based on	The novel  by Wendy Orr
Starring	Abigail Breslin Jodie Foster Gerard Butler
Music by	Patrick Doyle
Cinematography	Stuart Dryburgh
Editing by	Stuart Levy
Studio	Walden Media
Distributed by	20th Century Fox (USA) Universal Pictures (Latin America, UK, Canada) Summit Entertainment (Outside USA)
Release dates	4 April 2008
Running time	96 minutes
Country	Australia
Language	English
Budget	$37,000,000
Box office	$100,076,342

Nim's Island is a 2008 Australian adventure-fantasy film directed by Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin and starring Abigail Breslin, Jodie Foster, and Gerard Butler. The story is based on the book Nim's Island by Wendy Orr. 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 agoraphobic and lives in San Francisco. While Rover attempts to overcome her agoraphobia in order to set out in search of her, Nim tries to overcome her fear of losing her father. In the meantime, a cruise ship company attempts to invade Nim's island with uncouth tourists.

Plot

Nim (Abigail Breslin) is an 11-year-old girl, whose mother, 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 Buccaneer. Nim lives on an island in the South Pacific and has some local animals for company: Selkie the sea lion, Fred the lizard, Chica the sea 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 his daughter along, but she convinces him that she needs to stay to oversee the imminent hatching of Chica'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 acts as her father's assistant and goes to the island with the volcano.

Jack suffers a shipwreck, which makes it impossible for Nim and Jack to communicate. Therefore he does not return as planned. Galileo brings Jack things he needs to fix his ship. Nim explains the situation to "Alex". Although Alexandra suffers from agoraphobia and therefore never leaves the house or even opens the door, she travels to the island to rescue Nim, but Nim, who expected "Alex", first refuses her.

The island is visited by tourists. Nim believes them to be pirates. Without revealing herself she gets out of the crater just in time as plumes of clouds burst out. Down at the beach the tourists scramble to the boats. One of them, a boy, Edmund, sees and follows her. He is confused by her presence but believes she lives on the island. When he tells the others, they do not believe him.

Nim starts to cry, when she thinks that her ever-winning father must be dead after four days. But Jack appears on a makeshift windsurf coming to the island. Jack and Alex begin to know each other, and the film ends with them playing soccer with a coconut.

Cast

• Abigail Breslin as Nim Rusoe^[1]
• Jodie Foster as Alexandra Rover^[1]
• Gerard Butler as Jack Rusoe / Alex Rover^[2][3]
• Anthony Simcoe as First Mate
• Alphonso McAuley as Russell^[4]
• Morgan Griffin as Alice^[5]
• Michael Carman as Captain
• Christopher Baker as Ensign
• Maddison Joyce as Edmund
• Peter Callan as Edmund's Father

Critical reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 51% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 101 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 $100,076,342 worldwide.

Home media release

Nim's Island was released on DVD on 5 August 2008. It opened at #1 at the DVD sales chart, selling 466,326 DVD units and earning $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]

Filming locations

• Bowen, Queensland, Australia
• Hinchinbrook Island, Queensland, Australia – this serves as Nim's Island^[10]
• Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia
• Warner Bros. Movieworld – Pacific Highway, Oxenford, Queensland, Australia (studio)

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 3 February 2008. This marked the first time in a decade that he recorded a score in Los Angeles.^[11]

The song playing over the closing credits is "Beautiful Day" by U2.

The film's soundtrack CD was released on 8 April 2008 from Varèse Sarabande.^[12]

Sequel

A sequel, Return to Nim's Island, aired on the Hallmark Channel on March 15 in the U.S. and was released on DVD 19 March 2013, exclusively to Wal-Mart, and two days later on 21 March worldwide. Bindi Irwin replaced Abigail Breslin as Nim Rusoe, Toby Wallace replaced Maddison Joyce as Edmund, and Matthew Lillard replaced Gerard Butler as Jack Rusoe, Nim's father. Return to Nim's Island was released theatrically in Australia on 4 April 2013.

References

External links

• WendyOrr.com – Official website of the author of Nim's Island
• Nim's Island at the Internet Movie Database
• Nim's Island at Rotten Tomatoes
• Nim's Island at Metacritic
• Nim's Island at Box Office Mojo
• Nim's Island at allmovie
• Nim's Island – Full production notes for Nim's Island