The Last Mimzy, a fantasy film for the whole family, directed by Robert Shaye, opened at the Gibsons Cinema last Friday, on the first day of its Canadian launch. In this entertaining drama, mother (Joely Richardson) and father (Academy Award winner Timothy Hutton) take their two kids, Noah and Emma, away from their Seattle home for a week on the beach. The family cottage, ostensibly on Washington's Whidbey Island, looks remarkably like a section of Roberts Creek beach - for a reason. It was filmed in the Creek last May. Scenes of the cottage, the wharf and the beach appear frequently in the film. And where else but in the Creek would the kids find such magical movie material as a box of toys washed in on the tide? These toys are like no others: spinning rocks that conjure up a scene, a glass that makes objects fly through the air and a shell that induces super hearing.
But the real find among the box of toys is a floppy-eared toy rabbit called Mimzy that talks to six-year-old Emma, letting her know what she must do for the sake of the future of humanity. The producers of Mimzy, New Line Cinema, provided some giveaways at the door of the cinema on opening night, tiny Mimzy stuffed bunnies for the audience to take home. So, I asked my own toy Mimzy what she thought the public should know about the film.
"The film doesn't really get going until I enter the picture," she told me. "It's a bit slow at first."
"True," I replied, not worried at being seen talking to a stuffed rabbit. After all, the little girl in the film talked to hers and even the anti-terrorist security chief (Michael Clarke Duncan, The Green Mile) believed her.
"Weren't the kids cute?" asked my Mimzy. Yes, indeed - newcomers Chris O'Neil as Noah and Rhiannon Leigh Wryn as Emma were the stars of this show, along with Noah's goofy science teacher Rainn Wilson (The Office) and his karmic wife Kathryn Hahn (Crossing Jordan).
"What was your favourite bit?" asked my Mimzy. That's easy - the fascinating sound track. After Noah's super hearing becomes more pronounced, he can hear the footsteps of a centipede crossing a log and the murmurings of a spider while making a web.
The Last Mimzy is showing at the Gibsons Cinema, now under new managers Tim and Lynda McRae, and is held over until April 5. It will also run at the Raven's Cry Theatre in Sechelt at a later date. Try to see it, if only for the Roberts Creek scenes. There you have it - straight from the rabbit's mouth.
