Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
From the team behind Man on Wire comes the story of Nim, the chimpanzee who in the 1970s became the focus of a landmark experiment which aimed to show that an ape could learn to communicate with language if raised and nurtured like a human child. Following Nim's extraordinary journey through human society, and the enduring impact he makes on the people he meets along the way, the film is an unflinching and unsentimental biography of an animal we tried to make human. What we learn about his true nature - and indeed our own - is comic, revealing and profoundly unsettling.
Project Nim is a compelling documentary that stands out for its subject matter — the ethical and scientific questions raised by the Nim Chimpsky language experiment are genuinely fascinating and disturbing. Director James Marsh brings his Man on Wire verité-reconstruction style to bear effectively, blending archival footage with candid talking-head interviews. The film's novelty is high: it's a rare beast that functions simultaneously as animal biography, scientific critique, and meditation on human projection and cruelty. The cinematography is competent but not exceptional for a documentary. The plot is well-structured but occasionally meanders across Nim's many 'caretakers.' The ending is quietly devastating — Nim's fate in a medical testing facility and eventual sanctuary rescue lands emotionally — but it doesn't quite transcend into something formally memorable. Acting (interview subjects) is earnest and revealing if sometimes self-serving. A solid, above-average documentary elevated by its singular subject.