The Last Mimzy (2007)

Kids often see possibilities that grown-ups have long since forgotten how to notice. Robert Shaye's "The Last Mimzy" will inevitably be compared to "E.T.," but this more modest film is based on the classic short story "Mimsy Were the Borogoves," by Lewis Padgett - a pen name for the husband-and-wife writing team of Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore - which beat Steven Spielberg's alien fantasy by nearly four decades. Chris O'Neil and Rhiannon Leigh Wryn give winning, natural performances as Noah and Emma, siblings whose lives are transformed when they discover a box of strange objects on the beach near their family's vacation home outside Seattle. Among its contents is a stuffed rabbit, which Emma names Mimzy and quickly grows attached to. Noah and Emma are typical outsiders: he's awkward and no good at sports, while she's a quiet, imaginative little girl. But the objects work wonders on them. Their intelligence skyrockets, Noah develops astonishing new abilities, and Emma begins communicating telepathically with Mimzy, who reveals its true origin and purpose. Rainn Wilson of "The Office" shows off an offbeat charm as Mr. White, Noah's New Age-minded science teacher, who notices that Noah's intricate notebook sketches resemble ancient depictions of the universe and finds himself swept up in Mimzy's mission from the future. Timothy Hutton and Joely Richardson are solid as the bewildered and increasingly worried parents, and Kathryn Hahn co-stars as White's girlfriend. Michael Clarke Duncan is imposing as a federal agent who, invoking the Patriot Act, takes the family into custody after Noah accidentally triggers a citywide blackout with one of the futuristic devices.