Director: James Marsh
Humans have always tried to anthropomorphize animals, be it in Hollywood movies or putting clothing on our own pets. In the documentary Project Nim a scientist tries to take this to the next level, he takes a baby chimp and intends on raising it like a human and teaching it sign language. Whenever a documentary or fictional film is made about a scientific experiment, it's almost always about a scientific experiment gone wrong, so it's no surprise that the experiment does not really work out as planned.
All the people involved in this experiment are seemingly noble people, they display real affection for the chimp (they name it Nim Chimpsky). But eventually, their noble intentions are not enough, because the whole project is misguided from the beginning. Eventually we see them learn that animals are animals, and trying to humanize an animal will not make them humans. Nim's story ends up being tragic and devastating, and it's unfortunate that it turned out this way. The only thing the movie is missing is a third act uprising by the monkey to turn it into Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
Sometimes the tragedy of Nim gets dragged on a bit too long in the film, and director James Marsh takes advantage of our sympathies with animals a bit much as well. But the tragedy was real, and it's a shame that a chimp had to go through such a terrible life because a few people wanted to see what would happen if they tried to raise a chimp more like a human. In Project Nim we see how the treatment of animals will usually reveal a lot about the carelessness of humans for other creatures. It's not particularly surprising, but it's still a sad truth
Grade: B
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