Nim's Island

Abigail Breslin stars in Nim’s Island as a young girl living on a remote tropical outpost with only her scientist father (Gerard Butler) and a passel of anthropomorphized animal friends. When dad goes missing on a solo research trip, Nim reaches out to her literary hero, the dashing adventurer Alex Rover. Alex, it turns out, is actually an Alexandra — played as a neurotic, Purell-pumping agoraphobe by Jodie Foster. It’s hard to imagine kids not enjoying the good-hearted, lovingly shot fantasy of it all, and Breslin is charming, though most viewers past puberty will likely yearn to be voted off the Island. B

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  By Leah Greenblatt