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Film review

Clear: Hard to love - but you do

The story's a mess, but the cast and theme of The Last Mimzy are so appealing you can't help but let that slide.

By Marty Clear, Times correspondent
Published March 22, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [New Line Cinemas] A magic toy is a bridge to the future in the appealing, muddled The Last Mimzy.

There's plenty to like about The Last Mimzy. Good kid actors and some well-known adults, pretty visual effects and overall positive intentions are among the family-friendly movie's considerable strengths.

But a horribly awkward and cluttered story can make sticking with the movie something of a chore.

Director Robert Shaye and his writing team have crammed so much into 85 minutes that the narrative is little more than a muddle. There's time travel, an environmental theme, artificial intelligence, an involved story line about Tibetan mysticism that turns out to have nothing at all to do with anything, a New Age epilogue, a subplot that takes a bit of a dig at post-9/11 governmental paranoia and extended allusions to Alice in Wonderland.

There's a kid who can make spiders and cockroaches do his bidding, an adult with prescient dreams and a toy that saves the world.

It's 12 pounds of plot in a 10-pound bag.

That it turns out to be an enjoyable movie experience is mostly due to its general intelligence and sense of magic.

Here's a stab at a plot synopsis. A brother and sister find a strange box on the beach. It turns out to be full of magical objects, including a toy bunny that can communicate with the little girl through beeps and mumbles. Its name is Mimzy (a reference to a line from "Jabberwocky" in Alice in Wonderland) and it tells the girl that it has been sent from an ominous future to find something that mankind has lost.

The people from the future can't time-travel themselves, so they have been sending back these toy bunnies, fitted with computer chips, to random eras. The real-life Alice had one, and it became the inspiration for the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.

Adults are threatened by these strange goings-on and try to keep the kids from doing what the bunny wants them to do, which is to create a bridge to the future so Mimzy can go back with some of the little girl's DNA.

The two kids are impressive, especially Rhiannon Leigh Wryn, who was only 6 when this movie was filmed. They're cute but still real-looking, and intelligent without being obnoxiously precocious. Joely Richardson and Timothy Hutton are both appealing as their parents. The best performances come from Rainn Wilson and Kathryn Hahn as mystically oriented adults who get caught up in the adventure.

Although it's not anywhere close to being in the same league with E.T., The Last Mimzy shares with that classic a charming contention that children, by being idealistic and open to magic, can triumph over cynical and suspicious adults. The bright intentions shine through the murk of the storytelling.

Review

The Last Mimzy

Marty Clear's grade: B-

Chase Shiflet's grade: B-

Director: Robert Shaye

Cast: Rhiannon Leigh Wryn, Chris O'Neil, Joely Richardson, Timothy Hutton, Rainn Wilson

Screenplay: Bruce Joel Rubin, Toby Emmerich, James V. Hart and Carol Skilken, from a short story by Lewis Padgett

Rating: PG for some thematic elements, mild peril and language

Running time: 85 minutes

[Last modified March 21, 2007, 11:21:02]