Film review: Project Nim (12a)

The second great primate movie this week isn't so far removed from the sci-fi conceits of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. James Marsh's heartbreaking documentary explores the real-life case of Nim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee that ended up suffering a horrible life after it was picked as a test subject for a Columbia University study in America to see if chimps could learn to communicate using grammatically correct sign language if raised in a human environment.

That those conducting the study weren't native signers was just the first of the many methodological flaws in a study run by people who let their own egos get in the way of both the welfare of Nim and the science they were supposedly trying to advance.

Marsh – who previously won an Oscar for Man on Wire – assembles lots of archival footage and retrospective interviews with those involved, most of whom, to their credit, show a great deal of contrition about what happened, especially given the way they tended to abandon Nim at crucial moments.

A few heroes do emerge, but mostly the film serves as a reminder of tragic consequences that can arise from needless scientific follies.