Chris O’Neill and
Rhiannon
Leigh Wryn star as brother Noah and sister Emma.
While on vacation, they find some mysterious
toys and rocks in a box that has washed up on the beach near their
cottage. While
playing with these new found trinkets,
including a stuffed toy rabbit named Mimzy, who Emma claims is
communicating
with her and teaching her all sorts of stuff, both children start to
exhibit
amazing physical and mental abilities beyond human comprehension.
What are these toys? Where did they come from? Who sent them? Why?
The
Last Mimzy is a movie
full of whimsical danger, but never seems to be about anything, even
though you
can feel the message desperately trying to break through the screen. Director Robert Shaye
seems to be pulling his
punches as The
Last Mimzy makes some very strong allusions to its
pro-environmental, and possible pro-morality, leanings, but never goes
all the
way, maybe out of fear of offending those in the audience who want
entertainment instead of a politically charged lecture.
Then, it goes off to be a sci-fi movie trying
to confound the audience’s minds with possibilities, and
accomplishes the
confounding part in ways you might not think are very good for the
movie. The
questions of why and how often get placed
far behind the importance of showing the children acting cute.
The
Last Mimzy succeeds
when
it is trying to be very simple, a little funny, and visually driven to
win over
the youngest in the audience, while the movie has enough mystery to
draw in the
adults, but it rarely becomes compelling or shocking.
Shaye and writers Bruce Joel Rubin and Toby
Emmerich (based on the short story Mimsy Were The Borogoves) avoids
what could
have been a cool and relevant plot about the young boy desperately
trying to
hold onto his new found specialness after being a normal, average and
cynical
kid early in the movie, but does give us enough scenes to appreciate
the cute
kids, especially Wryn, who will be in contention for the title of Next
Dakota
Fanning as Fanning grows older, discovers boys, and possibly becomes
pals with
Britney, Lindsay and
Paris (God help us
all!). Trust me,
this kids are the
perfect definition of movie kiddie cuties.
The audience gets to see
some solid acting all around, especially Rainn Wilson who could have
been a bit
too hippy and psychedelic, but knows when to reign it in (Sorry, I
couldn’t
resist the easy cheesy pun). However,
the story could use more depth to make it very good.
In the end, The
Last Mimzy settles for
good.
2
Waffles (Out
Of 4)
The
Last Mimzy is
rated PG for some thematic elements , mild peril
and language.
Copyright
2007 - WaffleMovies.com
