THE LAST MIMZY (Robert Shaye). 94 minutes. Opens Friday (March 23). For venues and times, see Movies, page 89. Rating: N Rating: N
The Last Mimzy is director Robert Shaye‘s fourth film in four decades. At his day job, he’s the founder and CEO of New Line Cinema, so this science fiction eco-fable is a vanity production.
Two kids with harried parents find some junk on a beach, only it turns out to be something magical, or the product of an advanced technology that would seem like magic to us. But the toys have a message.
The parents are played by Timothy Hutton and Joely Richardson, and you can actually see Richardson’s soul curdling as the film progresses. She appears to be thinking, “My mom’s Vanessa Redgrave, my sister’s a star on Broadway and she’s married to Liam Neeson, and here I am playing Disney moms. Where did I go wrong?” (Two words: 101 Dalmatians.)
The Office’s Rainn Wilson plays a hippie science teacher, and Michael Clarke Duncan is the guy from Homeland Security who apparently runs a facility with worse security than the local high school, though this may be an ironic commentary on the filmmaker’s part.
The story is framed as a lesson from a teacher in the future, which looks like some kind of Swedish daycare in a flowery field. Yikes. This movie is bad for children and other living things.
