The Last Mimzy was directed by Robert Shaye, who also runs New Line Cinema.

At least he has a day job to fall back on.

This isn't to suggest the fantasy adventure is unwatchable or even very bad.

As family entertainment goes, it's disarmingly sweet in its low-tech approach to storytelling. But it's not terribly enthralling either. And in this age of graphic novel moviemaking and CG-animated wallpaper, anything less than bracingly immersive signals swift box-office death.

One hopes Mimzy manages to find a respectable audience for its quirky tale of dorky new-age hokum -- for younger children, it's more appropriate and uplifting than the cartoon mayhem of TMNT -- but then again, I was one of the ones anticipating Zodiac might find a niche to call its own.

Chris O'Neil and Rhiannon Leigh Wryn star as Noah and Emma Wilder, siblings who discover a mysterious black box containing such items as a seemingly antiquated stuffed bunny. The toy, it turns out, is actually a Mimzy, a hyper-advanced AI sent from the future by a doomed human race desperate to save itself by scouring the past for what it needs.

As Noah and Emma endeavour to help, they develop strange powers, most of which are played for comic relief.

Filling the thankless roles of the kids' parents are Timothy Hutton and Joely Richardson, neither of whom registers as a fully-developed character.

Served somewhat better is The Office's Rainn Wilson, in a marginally less dorky role, as Noah's metaphysically-minded science teacher.

Toward the end, even Michael Clarke Duncan appears as a firm but fair federal agent brought in to investigate after Noah and Emma accidentally black out much of the Pacific Northwest with their newfound trinkets.

(Shaye and writer Bruce Joel Rubin pause long enough to needle the much-maligned U.S. Patriot Act.)

The involvement of government officials chasing down kids and the alien objects they communicate with is just one way in which Mimzy more than resembles E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. Yet despite the cast of likeable performers, and the E.T.-inspired plot, for much of its scant 96 minutes Mimzy is rudderless in a muddle of metaphysical malarkey and time-travelling science fiction.

Don't blame Shaye, though. Blame the guy who hired him.

(This film is rated G)
More Movie Reviews