By Katey Rich
The movie that was the #1 film in America for two weeks, and is the highest-grossing film of the year, doesn't have much use for girls. In Horton Hears A Who! the Mayor of Whoville has 96 daughters-- oh, think of the cost of all the weddings!-- and yet, his greatest concern is developing a better relationship with his son. In the end it's the son who saves the day, while the daughters presumably are too busy curling their hair.
This discrepancy caused NPR host Peter Sagal to go off on a mini-rant the other day, and I don't blame him. It must be hard to be a parent of daughters, or a parent trying to raise children with a sense of gender equality, given that virtually all children's movies are either entirely about boys, or render girls to the sidelines. When girls are the main characters, they're living dolls as in the Bratz movie, or Disney princesses, valued more for their frilly dresses than their life skills.
Which is why I was so thrilled by Nim's Island, a children's adventure movie that is mostly unremarkable except for the fact that it stars a girl. A girl who can climb volcanoes, fix a solar panel, rig a booby trap and rescue someone from drowning, never letting a skinned knee or even her father's disappearance stop her. She's played by Abigail Breslin, an 11-year-old actress who is quickly becoming an icon for the American girlhood that seems to be rapidly slipping away, in a culture that makes spas for elementary schoolers and baby tees for, well, babies.
Her pairing with Jodie Foster is all the more perfect. Foster is one of few child actors to successfully make it to an adult career with no speedbumps, and she's persisted in playing quality characters when many actresses her age can barely find work. In Nim's Island she's not the ass-kicking tough cookie we've become accustomed to in recent years, but with Nim in charge, Foster's Alex can afford to be a pratfalling goofball. She's the writer of a successful series of adventure books, and the creator of an Indiana Jones-explorer who is, for Nim, the emblem of a dashing male adventurer. The film takes the phrase "behind every powerful man is a strong woman" to a whole new level.
Don't worry, guys, Nim's Island isn't about how women don't need you-- Nim's father Jack (Gerard Butler) is a beloved figure, as is Alex's fictional explorer, also named Alex (also played by Butler). But the movie offers a notion that is barely ever considered in Hollywood anymore-- women can do anything, and the fact that they're women doesn't have to be a big deal. Growing up on a remote island, no one ever told Nim, "Girls don't climb volcanoes," so she never worried about it. And Alex is an agoraphobe and hates traveling, but it's not because she's a woman-- it's just because she's a little crazy.
As a girl raised to play baseball with my dad and get muddy as often as possible, I would have adored Nim and envied her treehouse life. Though Nim's Island isn't a perfect children's movie, it's sweet and daring in a way few are anymore. They say young boys don't like stories that star girls, so it seems likely that Nim won't make much of a splash at the box office. It's a shame. Every kid, regardless of gender, needs to see it, as a reminder to get out there and explore, and don't forget to let the girls come too.
No comments:
Post a Comment