Written by Jennifer
March 08, 2009
I'm sure some little girl will wind up on a therapist's couch talking about her fear of stuffed bunnies and beach-combing.
Have you ever noticed that kids in movies are absolutely unfazed by things like aliens, ghosts, and time travel? They're always gung ho to make friends with extraterrestrials, and if they find themselves on a different planet or whizzing back in time, well then, so much the better. I suppose it's because nothing that spectacular ever happens to us cautious types—the ones who see something creepy and run the other way—but there's something a little spooky about these unflappable tykes. Check out The Last Mimzy if you don't believe me.
While on Easter vacation at their Whidbey Island cabin, Emma and Noah Wilder (Rhiannon Leigh Wryn and Chris O'Neil) find a weird-looking box washed up on the shore. Inside, they find a pile of rocks and the cutest stuffed bunny you'd ever want to meet. Delighted with their discovery, they haul the goodies up to their bedroom. Emma immediately falls in love with the bunny, because not only is it adorable, it talks! It has sort of a soft, gurgly electronic voice that only Emma can understand, and it says its name is Mimzy.
Already I would be out of this story, because I would be wondering how many other kids sucked on this rabbit before I found it, and the talking would scare the crap out of me. You can bet I'd be hurling it back in the Sound and washing my hands before I even found out about the rocks, which, as you've probably guessed, are not just ordinary rocks. When the children arrange them in a circle, they start go glow, then spin, and when Emma reaches into the sphere they create, her hand vaporizes! Does this upset her or her brother in the slightest? Heck no—Emma wants to try it again!
The kids soon notice that they seem to have developed special powers. They can run faster, jump higher, and think better than they ever have before, and Noah has developed the ability to communicate with spiders. Again, I'd be out of the story because I'd be terrified that I'd wind up with a brain tumor from all of this. I wouldn't have any fun because I'd be in my room worrying. Not these kids! They just keep playing with their newfound treasures and living it up.
Noah's elaborate science project and intricate drawings knock the socks off his science teacher and his wife (Rainn Wilson and Kathryn Hahn), a couple of New Agey intellects who look like they'd smell like feet. His extraordinary work prompts a conference with his parents (Timothy Hutton and Joely Richardson), but they're also at a loss to explain Noah's sudden transformation. As the adults try to understand why the kids are suddenly excelling at everything they do, Noah and Emma begin to sense that they're part of something much bigger than they realized. Why has Mimzy come to them, and how can they help her?
When Noah accidentally causes a major blackout, Homeland Security agents (headed by Michael Clarke Duncan) track him down and take the family to a research facility. Have the kids and their treasures become a threat to national security, or do they just need to help Mimzy to save her people? And why has Mr. White the science teacher been having such vivid and symbolic dreams? Acting upon intuition alone, the children, the teacher, and his wife all come together to save Mimzy and the future of mankind.
It's all very compelling, though at times it's hard to read the tone of the movie. Even I got the creeps a few times, so I would imagine that smaller children might find some of the images and situations a bit scary. Luckily, everything turns out in the end, and we learn that Mimzy's presence is not to be feared after all. Like many of the children's movies I grew up with, The Last Mimzy doesn't talk down to its audience, and can be enjoyed by adults as well. I was as scarred as I was entertained by The Neverending Story and The Dark Crystal when I was little, so I'm happy to see that movies like The Last Mimzy are here to mess up the next generation. In a few years, I'm sure some little girl will wind up on a therapist's couch talking about her fear of stuffed bunnies and beach-combing. Shoot, we'll probably run into each other in the waiting room.
