(2007, 97 min) Robert Shaye, founder of New Line Cinema, returns to directing with the help of screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin (Deep Impact, Jacob’s Ladder), crafting an interesting new age young person’s film, The Last Mimzy. Newcomers Chris O’Neil and Rhiannon Leigh Wryn play the children who find a mysterious box washed ashore near their Seattle beach-house. It contains a stuffed bunny and other inscrutable objects that soon will become the centerpiece of a science fiction fantasy with many current ideas on spirituality thrown into the mix. Timothy Hutton and Joely Richardson play the increasingly befuddled parents as their kids start to exhibit signs of genius and paranormal activity. Emma (Wryn) maintains her childlike wonder throughout the film as her only concern is her attachment to Mimzy (the bunny rabbit).
There are many interesting concepts presented throughout the film including Tibetan Buddhist mandalas, clairvoyance and clairaudience, levitation and nano technology. The special effects are spectacular in an understated manner, such as when Noah (O’Neil) begins to see the underlying geometric perfection in the world around him after activating a mysterious slab from the magic box.
Issues of national security are also raised when an agent (Michael Clarke Duncan) investigates a city-wide blackout caused by Noah’s manipulation of a generator formed from elements of the box.
At times, there seems almost too much information is presented, clouding the natural unfoldment of the plotline. This is a minor quibble however as the film reveals a future time where scientists still grappling with world dilemmas, await the return from the past of Mimzy, who is really an amazing feat of nanotechnology manufactured by Intel.
Adults will be interested to learn that The Last Mimzy is not a lowest common denominator kid flick but a thoughtful rumination related to E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind and What the Bleep Do We Know?
© TLA Entertainment Group
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