Heartwarming 'Mimzy' lacks pacing, excitement

One of the writers is bringing back a familiar theme from his other works.
By ROGER MOORE
ORLANDO SENTINEL
Something in the theater made my hand work across the page. There it is, scribbled in the notebook, barely legible.
"Why is 'The Last Mimzy' so much like 'Ghost' ... so Tibetan?"
A slow movie will do that to you when you take notes in the dark.
And then, there's my answer, in the credits. Bruce Joel Rubin, who introduced "The Tibetan Book of the Dead" to movie audiences with "Ghost" and "Jacob's Ladder" in 1990, is one of several credited writers on this odder-than-odd children's film.
A famous sci-fi short story ("Mimzy Were Borogoves") is the framework for this movie, about kids who find a cache of strange toys -- spinning rocks, a wriggling blob, an aged stuffed rabbit doll -- in a box that washes up near their beach house.
The kids, Noah and Emma (Chris O'Neil and Rhiannon Leigh Wryn) keep the cache secret from their parents (Timothy Hutton and Joely Richardson). But it's obvious they've gotten their hands on something extraordinary. The stones spin and weave holographic pictures. The doll whispers to Emma. It appears to see all and know all.
And the children -- the girl's 6, Noah's about 9 -- start doing amazing things, complex science projects for school, doodling obscure Tibetan pictographs.
That gets the attention of the hipster science teacher (Rainn Wilson of "The Office"). Before you know it, a movie about innocent children receiving a message from the future, across the eons of time, has become a "Little Buddha" for the new millennium, with pushy Tibetan-loving teachers and seemingly "chosen" children.
Plus a doll, a stuffed rabbit named Mimzy.
Making a connection
It's been 25 years since "E.T.," so we're long overdue for an emotional sci-fi movie that kids will connect with. "Mimzy," directed by the fellow who runs the New Line movie studio, Bob Shaye, benefits from a tear-jerking turn by little Miss Wryn and some very familiar story beats.
But it's awkwardly constructed, with a lame teacher-tells-a-story-in-the-future framework that gets the film off on the wrong foot. It takes a good, long while to get going, and the action doesn't exactly crackle when it does. "Mimzy" has the same E.T. "government agents" tracking these goings on (Michael Clarke Duncan is their chief), only with less menace and more incompetence.
Still, that kid can make you cry, and the story's payoff is rich and heartwarming. It has a few moments that suggest the movie it might have become, but the poor pacing robs the movie of urgency and emotion.
Shaye marshaled this project through his studio as a labor of love. No doubt that included bringing in multiple screenwriters, including the Oscar-winning Tibeta-phile, Mr. Rubin.
But Bob, don't you remember that ancient Tibetan catch-phrase, "If you love something, set it free"?
Or at least let somebody else direct.