The Last Mimzy film review

certificate_PG

THE LAST MIMZY

Once you get beyond the off-putting title, The Last Mimzy is a decently crafted kids' fantasy with a subtly ingrained ecological warning. It's not likely the majority of its young audience will pick up on, or be interested in, its message about man destroying his environment, but the way it's incorporated is certainly far less clunky than in Happy Feet. While making comparisons with recent children's films, it also shares some of Bridge To Terabithia's engaging mystical qualities.

Based on a 1943 short story by Lewis Padgett, The Last Mimzy centers on the Wilder children, Noah (Chris O' Neil) and his younger sister Emma (Rhiannon Leigh Wryn), who find a mysterious box washed up on a beach. Inside are some strange crystals and a stuffed rabbit, which Emma calls Mimzy. Immediately the pair acquires strange psychic gifts, which not only freak out a babysitter, but brings Noah to the attention of his teacher Larry (Rainn Wilson) and Larry's spiritual girlfriend Naomi (Kathryn Hahn).

Their transformation alarms their parents, Jo (Joely Richardson) and David (Timothy Hutton)'It's just not normal,' declares their bemused mother. When the weird rocks cause an electrical blackout of Seattle, the FBI and, in an unnecessarily heavy-handed manner, an anti-terrorist unit headed by Nathanial Broadman (Michael Clarke Duncan) trace the outage to the Wilder's home. The family and their unusual items are taken to a research facility for tests. Turns out Mimzy is no regular stuffed toy, but comprised of nano-technology way in advance of anything man could produce at present, though stamped with a less than subtle product placement for Intel.

The Last Mimzy is directed with efficiency rather than flair by Robert Shaye, who is better known as a producer. Indeed Mimzy is only his second directing job since 1965. Young Leigh Wryn does a nice job of capturing the wonder of a child in possession of extraordinary gifts, while O'Neil delivers a far more wooden performance as her brother. He isn't helped by the fact he's burdened with the obligatory and cliched glasses seemingly worn by all little boys in films.

Some of the plot's more involved details are inclined to complicate and slow things down, but the futuristic elements are nicely set up and resolved, while the effects are used sparingly but well. With a touch more verve, imagination and clarity, The Last Mimzy could have had more impact, but even so, there is much to enjoy. Shame about the title, though.