PROJECT NIM – The Review

It’s official, for the second weekend in a row RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES is the number one movie at the box office. So, do you have an appetite for more simian stories? How about a documentary on the true life experiment that may have inspired the fantasy story of Caesar and the ape uprising (but there’s no experimental Alzheimer’s drugs involved here). Film maker James Marsh (MAN ON A WIRE) takes us back to the early 1970’s in his new work PROJECT NIM for the story of Nim Chimpsky and the humans who interacted with him. I think this true tale is just as compelling as anything a screenwriter might dream up.

In 1973 baby Nim was forcibly taken from the arms of his mother, after she had been shot with a tranquilizer dart, at a US primate research facility. He would be part of an experiment conducted by Herbert Terrace of Columbia University. Nim was placed in the home of one of Terrace’s former students in New York City. There he would be taught sign language and the woman would record his progress and see how he behaved in this new environment. The film soon becomes a record of Nim’s many new caregivers and homes. He generated enormous publicity for the college, but Terrrace and his students were not prepared to deal with a maturing chimp. What starts out as a sweet story of a cute little monkey living as a person turns into a story of neglect, violence, exploitation, and heartbreak.

Marsh uses several techniques to tell Nim’s journey. The horrific opening scenes at the primate center are re-enactments using actors along with animal puppetry to great dramatic effect. This is inter-cut with home movie footage, TV news reports, and new interviews with the participants. These new segments are shot against a solid color background with the camera trained on their faces until they exit the narrative (the camera slowly pans from them). Since this experiment occurred shortly after the sexual revolution, Terrace enlisted several former students (and paramours) to help with the research. Today this guy would be up to his ears in harassment suits! Speaking of sex, puberty hits Nim hard as the frustrated students try to teach him new phrases. Seems the guy just wants to hump everything. And being the 70’s, lots of recreational drugs are used-and shared with Nim. There have been many news stories lately about violent attacks by chimps on people, and this happens as Nim grows into adulthood. Still one of the students is loyal to him and makes it his mission to help Nim. His interviews are some of the most heartbreaking of the film. By the end Nim has gone from adorable hero to exploited and forgotten victim. His story is a another tale of a creature used by humans who forget their compassion in the quest for fame, fortune, and science. This is a superior non-fiction film.

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars