Last Mimzy (2007)

"...a ripping yarn.  G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle
"An intelligent, imaginative children's adventure refreshingly free of rapping cartoon animals...  Ken Fox, TV Guide
"The newcomer kids are delightfully...kidlike..."The Office's" Rainn Wilson plays a New Agey science teacher.  Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
"An unexpectedly disarming, extremely well-cast little variation on "E.T."  Lou Lumenick, New York Post
"Call it "E.T." for a new generation.  Paula Nechak, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Editor's Note Two kids find a bizarre box on the beach and are soon exhibiting signs of off-the-chart genius in this gently mind-blowing fantasy film. Little Emma (Rhiannon Leigh Wryn) finds a cute bunny doll in the box, who talks to her in electronic code, and Noah (Chris O'Neil) learns to speak in a frequency that lets him control spiders. The kids learn to move objects via psychokinesis and communicate telepathically. Naturally, their parents (Timothy Hutton and Joely Richardson) wonder what is going on here. Noah's science teacher (Rainn Wilson) has dreams predicting all this, centered on a mandala symbol from ancient Tibetan Buddhism, which Noah draws in class. Michael Clarke Duncan is suitably dour as the Homeland Security official who investigates when the kids' newfound power creates a major blackout across Seattle. Parents who cringe at the vulgarity of many kid films will certainly appreciate LAST MIMZY's sweet-natured awe towards the natural world and its inhabitants, which comes without extraneous action or excessive musical bombast. The film moves with a poetic grace, calling attention to environmental and social problems without preaching, and creating the possibility for a genuinely better world. The child actors are real naturals who are allowed to talk and sound like kids, and car chases and explosions are all but absent in place of genuine mystery and excitement about human potential. It's rare to find a sci-fi film that makes the future seem worth saving, so consider this one a true gem.

	Chris O'Neil
	Joely Richardson
	Rainn Wilson
	Rhiannon Leigh Wryn
	Alan Heim - Editor
	Barry Chusid - Production Designer
	Bruce Joel Rubin - Screenplay
	C.L. Moore - Based On Short Story By
	Henry Kuttner - Based On Short Story By
	Howard Shore - Original Music By
	J. Michael Muro - Cinematographer
	Justis Greene - Executive Producer
	Michael Phillips - Producer
	Robert Shaye - Director
	Ross Dempster - Art Director
	Toby Emmerich - Screenplay

Entertainment Weekly
"[T]he newcomer kids are delightfully...kidlike." -- Grade: B 03/30/2007 p.54

Sight and Sound
"Modest and charming, THE LAST MIMZY is unusual children's fare, and SF film with a contemporary setting and minimal effects, relying on a compelling mystery and ideas." 06/01/2007 p.63

ReelViews 7 of 10
What is The Last Mimzy about? Is it a cautionary tale about an impending ecological disaster? An attack on governmental intrusion into the lives of ordinary citizens? A superhero tale? A primer on New Age spiritualism? The 2007 answer to E.T.? It wants to be all these things and more, but there's a difference between doing something and doing something well. The Last Mimzy rushes so quickly from one plot element to the next that it loses things like character development and atmosphere along the way. The Last Mimzy feels rushed and incomplete, and the tidy ending doesn't help. Every time the movie pulls us under its adventurous spell, it changes gears and we have to get acclimatized again...As family friendly adventures go, The Last Mimzy is a cut below the recent Bridge to Terabithia, with which it shares the same target demographic. - James Berardinelli

Reel.com 8 of 10
The Last Mimzy is one of the strangest family movies in quite some time, a cross between a conventional fantasy film and a counterculture head-trip movie like 2001 or Performance. This is not necessarily a criticism--children's films have gotten so nauseatingly bland in recent years that any attempt at doing something idiosyncratic or personal is to be applauded. And The Last Mimzy is nothing if not idiosyncratic, alternating Spielbergian scenes of suburban life with impressionistic bursts of light and sound, and plot twists that would make David Lynch scratch his head. While the end result of all this experimentation isn't entirely convincing or coherent, it's fairly entertaining and will probably appeal to the young audience at which it's aimed...Luckily, through a careful balance of tones and performances, director Bob Shaye hits just the right balance between playing it straight and winking at the audience. - Jim Hemphill