Project Nim

The life and times of Nim Chimpsky make for an extraordinary and tragic tale from director James Marsh.

James Marsh, director of ace documentary Man on Wire, again utilises narrative techniques more associated with fiction to produce a startling and eccentric biopic. With a curiously Dickensian sweep, Project Nim explores the sinister power structure that develops when a chimpanzee is chosen to lead a potentially revolutionary language experiment.

Psychologists may have given the ape a cute name and treated him with love and affection (at least during his years of infancy), but Nim was first, foremost and forever a ‘project’. Fated to live an inauthentic life away from his own kind, he endured a tragic journey from cradle to grave, dying of a heart attack aged 26, alone and despondent.

Dr Herbert Terrace, head of the Primate Cognition Laboratory at Columbia University (and the closest thing to a villain the film possesses), took a baby chimp from its mother at his research lab and placed it with a wealthy family in Brooklyn with the intent of raising the ape as if it was a human baby. Of course he wasn’t a well-behaved child. Manipulative, strong and even bullying, Nim Chimpsky would trash their house at any given opportunity.

The second phase would be to note intellectual development and abilities taught through sign language. The big question was this: would the chimp demonstrate clear ability and put together a grammatical sentence to express inner thoughts and experience? Or would Terrace and his team get no further than a real-life case of ‘monkey see, monkey do’?

Marsh’s approach as director is to remain detached and non-judgemental, even if audiences are unlikely to be so restrained. However, as Marsh refrains from offering a moral message or even editorial condemnation, that very neutrality becomes a key strength of his film. Another major success is how deftly these complex issues are handled.

Mixing archive material, retrospective interviews, dramatic recreations, Super 8 and home video footage, Project Nim rolls along an inevitable course as activists, conservationists, psychologists and scientists give their expert opinions and recollections. Gradually, two things become clear: all were profoundly affected by their time with Nim, and hindsight is a bitch.

Shunted from pillar to post, animal sanctuary to medical lab and, finally, to a home for neglected animals, Nim made a painful transition from cute baby to fully grown, unmanageable, unwanted adult. Reunited with his first ‘human’ mother, Stephanie LaFarge, later in life, Nim proceeded to bash her head repeatedly against the cage wall. How’s that for unambiguous communication?

There’s a great deal to take in and at just over 90 minutes the film feels short. The sometimes self-justifying statements and sheer illogic of supposedly clever individuals will no doubt rile some, and deserved (perhaps demanded) more rigorous deconstruction. Even those who genuinely loved the chimp seem unable to grasp certain ethical points. Maybe Nim wasn’t the sole casualty of this unfortunate affair.

Published 12 Aug 2011

Tags: James Marsh