Review

Unlike most of the precocious child-actor ilk, Abigail Breslin is more of a genuinely goofy kid than a sometimes creepy mini-adult (word to Dakota Fanning). That’s why Nim’s Island—a throwback action-adventure flick with not even one animated wise-cracking rhesus monkey—seems perfect for her. When invaders to her exotic island-home kidnap her scientist father, Breslin, as the titular Nim, seeks the help of children’s-book writer Alexandra Rover (Jodie Foster), whose thrilling tales are in actuality oh-so-very far from her real life as an agoraphobic shut-in. Bonus: Check out the trailer for New York’s cameo. — Amos Barshad