WHISPER it beneath your breath: here, for once, we have a decent family film that seeks neither to patronise nor to lecture its audience. Fans of Lewis Padgett's Mimsy Were the Borogroves, a story from science fiction's golden age, may object to The Last Mimzy's (sic) over- reliance on CGI and its inability to entertain the original tale's pessimism.
But, alternately creepy and charming, this is an enjoyable exercise in post- Spielbergia that should appeal to imaginative folk of all ages.
Throwing together bits of ET, AI and (if you scrunch up your brain a little) The Exorcist, the story concerns a brother and sister who acquire supernatural intellectual and telekinetic abilities after happening upon a box in the waves near their parents' summer house. Among the container's contents they find a stuffed rabbit - the titular Mimsy - who, speaking in a language of burrs and hums, has a story to tell. It seems it was created by scientists in the future and sent back in time as part of a puzzling plan to avert a coming genetic catastrophe. Still with me? It makes a little more sense when you see it on screen.
Regrettably, the film-makers have incorporated the most over-used subplot in modern cinema. Father is, thank heavens, not played by Tim Allen, but, in the form of Timothy Hutton, he still has the usual lessons to learn about the relative values of work and family.
Still, this careering cliche does little to get in the way of the agreeably fantastic plot. Much
of the credit for retaining the audience's interest should go to the excellent juvenile cast. The fantastically named Rhiannon Leigh Wryn, whose charm never quite coagulates into sweetness, is particularly winning as the child entrusted with the burden of saving the universe.
Whether such an eccentric film can secure a mainstream audience remains in question. However did director Robert Shaye, CEO of New Line Pictures, persuade New Line Pictures to finance the project?
