The Island of Numb

Thank you so much for all your well-wishes for my husband! He's home and resting before his surgery (slated for Monday!) He's not nervous at all - his doctors have been fantastic reassuring him, and now he's just looking forward to getting well.

I took my daughter to see the Island of Nim (starring Jodie Foster.)
It was Dreadful.
Lousy.
Boring.
Disappointing.

My daughter's comments:

"There's no story!"

"I can't believe the pirates weren't real. I thought, from seeing the trailor, that the little girl's island would be overrun with real pirates, and the writer would show up and be completely ineffectual, and the girl would save them all. Instead, there is no story. The pirates were fake."

"The lizards were stupid. The animals were too clever and it ruined everything. Why couldn't the father just be blown onto another island, instead of stranded on his boat and a bird brings him food and tools. We're supposed to believe that? The mix of fantasy and reality didn't work for me at all. It had to be either all fantasy or all reality."

"It was just stupid, stupid, stupid."

(She was quite harsh, but we only go to the movies every three months, and we look forward to our outings. We look at all the trailors and try to choose which movie we think will be good. The trailor to this movie was a hundred times better than the real movie. Now my daughter is furious we didn't go see Spiderwyk. Jodie Foster, if you're reading this, your good acting could not save this from floundering and sinking. Sorry.)

My comments:

"How can a girl who lives on a desert island be so chubby? She had flab hanging off her upper arms! I don't mind chunky kids, but this girl was flabby. Ugh. There was another child in the film - a boy. He was grossly overweight. He gave me the creeps. He was so fat, his eyes were tiny and he had no chin. His mother was huge and fat, his father huge and fat. Why are there so many fat people in this film? Next to them, Jodie Foster looks famished."

"The imaginary character was a good idea. Why didn't they use it more? And why bring in the clever lizard, pelican, and seal? What use were they?"

"Where was the pacing? There were too many switches between the scenes. Jodie, Island, Jodie, Island, Jodie, clever pelican saving father on boat, Jodie, Island...the scenes were poorly constructed and didn't last long enough or were too long. At the end, I just wanted the whole island to blow up so we could get up and leave."

Verdict - go see another film. Don't even bother renting this one when it hits the rental shops. It's a dud.