Producer turned screenwriter David Hudgens and Hamm leave all subtlety out of their depictions of shrill, fanatical activists (In Nashville?), and undercut their take on this issue in the process. But a quick online search reveals how divisive this issue is, with the countries where capuchin live in the wild banning their capture and being kept as pets, and other cities, states and countries banning primate pets for health, safety and moral reasons.Ī lot of diseases make the leap from primate to primate from monkeys and apes.Īny movie that takes a stand on this issue as a major subtext is wading into a no-win scenario. “The Journey” was good, “Killing Bono” wasn’t terrible even if “Godsend” was. I’ve liked other films by Northern Irish director Nick Hamm. That supermarket visit turns everything ugly and public as an animal rights activist ( Tara Summers) rallies her troops against the guy stuck in a wheelchair for life. Nate and Gigi are already social media darlings and the subject of debate. Years of training later, she’s here to be a companion, be a responsibility, be a friend and fetch the paintbrush for Nate’s paint-with-his-teeth art or grab something off the supermarket shelf.Īnd that’s where the new problems begin. And “help” arrives in the form of a service animal, skittish and very smart Gigi, a capuchin monkey whom we saw rescued from a neglectful traveling petting zoo near Joshua Tree, California in the film’s opening scene. “Hope” comes from rehab and physical therapy. “I don’t want to be more of a burden to everyone than I already am,” he says later. Nate, weepy and wailing in pain in a wheelchair, takes a shot at ending things by the means at hand - the family koi pond. College, “a normal life,” it’s all off the table, now. His mother (Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden), father ( Jim Belushi), sisters ( Josephine Langford, Hannah Riley) and grandma ( Diane Ladd) are distraught. A virus in the water has him sick and feverish within hours, diagnosed with encephalitis leading to quadriplegia within days. He didn’t hit the water wrong, or hit rocks once he went in. “Gigi & Nate” is what happens when you round up a good cast and a pretty polished director for a screenplay that turns away from its strengths, takes a swing at “important,” and misses.īritish actor Charlie Rowe of the recent “Vanity Fair” adaptation for TV stars as Nate, a Nashville teen who takes that one fateful dive into a sink hole pond near the family’s N.C. It begins with a surprisingly touching tragedy, morphs into a cute story of hope and then hurls itself headlong into a nasty take on one corner of the animal rights debate.
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