"D+" Rating by Robert W. Hammerle

"Nim's Island" is saved from a corner of movie hell reserved for maudlin family films solely because of the charm of Abigail Breslin and the fact that it was filmed on a gorgeous location on Hinchinbrook Island, Queensland, Australia. As Ms. Breslin proved in "Little Miss Sunshine" (2006) and last year's "No Reservations," she is a wondrous young actress. While her comedic skills are apparent, her dramatic range makes her unique for her age.

But even she can't save "Nim's Island" from imploding on itself. While this movie has enough going for it to hold the attention of children under the age of ten, I dare say that most parents will greet the ending with utter relief.

For what it is worth, the movie has a "Swiss Family Robinson" theme where a father (Gerard Butler) builds a home for his daughter (Ms. Breslin) on a deserted island so that he can continue his scientific work. Her mother having died before the movie began, the audience is invited to believe that a little girl has found paradise while living alone, her only companions being a goofy assortment of wildlife that she has partially tamed.

Ms. Breslin lives vicariously by reading adventure books by an author named Alex Rover. Mistakenly believing Rover to be a man, the author is actually a woefully miscast Jodie Foster, a woman so neurotic that she cannot leave her apartment for any reason. When her father becomes lost at sea, Ms. Breslin and Ms. Foster connect through emails, which results in a completely improbable journey by the latter to go save the former.

What follows is nonsense of the highest order. Ms. Foster's entire role in this film is to react in horror as she is forced to face the outside world. See an adult woman afraid to walk out the front door; see an adult woman suffer motion sickness in a cab; see an adult woman have an anxiety attack when her multiple bottles of antiseptic hand lotion are taken from her during an airport security check. See most of the adults in the audience growing increasingly sick as they watch this on screen.

Added to the ridiculousness is a subplot involving a cruise ship landing its passengers on our little hero's island. While I have little personal affection for cruise ship people as a general rule, this movie reduces them to one-dimensional clichés even by my pessimistic standards.

To tap it all off is an ending that is pathetically cloying. It panders to the audience in a fashion that would almost cause you to throw something at the screen if you had not already lost interest long before. Somehow, someway, I was hoping that Mr. Butler would morph into his King Leonidas character he played in the "300" (2007), while Ms. Foster could turn into her female Charles Bronson character she played in the "Death Wish" remake "The Brave One" (2007). At least that way they could have simply killed each other, which would have been far more satisfying to most parents in the crowd.