Nell
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Movie Reviews of Nell
Movie Review: Poignant and Quite Incredible
Summary: 5 Stars
Though it was made almost 17 years ago, I just this afternoon saw this film for the first time. I was blown away. The entirety of the piece is filmed in such an earthy, intoxicating, truly haunting way. My heart broke over and over, and yet shouted for joy again and again - for Nell, for Dr. Lovell, for Paula. I watched "Nell" on my own time; however, as a medical student, this film is incredibly pertinent to my studies. Many would've seen (and indeed, some did see) Nell as "crazy"; would've had her locked up without any reconsideration of the subject - the result of other individuals projecting their views and realities onto her. We know innately that this is unacceptable, yet it still sometimes happens in medicine today. This film served, for me, as a well-placed reminder of "first, do no harm" and the many forms in which the mantra can materialize. The film also peels back some of the layers of the human psyche - what REALLY happens when humans live alone? Not just alone, but totally isolated? What makes us who we are? Is it us? The people around us? The world we live in? I was incredulous at how strongly I emoted with Nell as she remembered the bond she had with her twin sister - a bond that not even science can completely understand or explain - and the emptiness she felt in the world after the only two souls she knew had left it. I shed many tears with Nell as the movie progressed. This is a tribute both to the filmmaking and to Jodie Foster's INCREDIBLE skill as an actress and producer. "Nell" is both amazing and awe-inspiring. I know it will be a long time before I can forget or even stop thinking about this film. I cannot recommend the film highly enough.Movie Review: "Can you live your whole life that way? Would it drive you crazy in the end?"
Summary: 5 Stars
Jodie Foster plays Nell, a young woman who lives all alone in a secluded forest in North Carolina. She's been living with her late mother her entire life, and now she's in complete isolation with only a handful of people ever realizing her existence. She has her own language, her own shelter, and her own look at the beautiful world around her. Jerome and Paula (Liam Neeson & the late Natasha Richardson) are doctors who examine her language and her communication skills. These will help them figure out if Nell is able to handle the real world (the world that she has hardly any knowledge of).
This has to be one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. The woods and lakes of North Carolina are magnificently shot. The music by Mark Isham is ambient and effective. The look and feel of this film is extraordinarily beautiful. Plus, this is one of Jodie Foster's finest performances. Her unusual movements and behaviors are almost flawless when seen onscreen. Neeson and Richardson are also fantastic as the two doctors who realize that Nell is more than just a so-called "wild child." Jeremy Davies, Nick Searcy, Richard Libertini, and Robin Mullins make a fine supporting ensemble. Now, some people have criticized this movie for being too melodramatic. The only scene that I found a bit melodramatic was the courtroom scene near the end. It does feel slightly operatic in an unnecessary way, but that's my only complaint. This film has sheer beauty all over it. It looks like it just turned into a brand new favorite of mine.
Grade: A-
Movie Review: Amazing Work - A Masterpiece! Impeccable Peformance by Foster
Summary: 5 Stars
A superb film on the subject of an isolated woman who survives in her own world and the inevitable difficulties when she is confronted with the alternative.
Liam Neeson is brilliant as the dedicated Doctor who takes the trouble to investigate, understand the strangely cropped linguistics of Foster, and realizes the fundamental stability of her situation despite the sometimes eccentric behaviour that she evinces.
The battle with the establishment and their knee jerk reaction towards forced institutionalization is brilliantly complemented by the non involved Psychiatrist who gradually is drawn into the investigation that Liam's character undertakes and eventually comes to his side as a no longer disinterested ally.
The ending, which will not be revealed here, is superbly satisfying.
There are many ways this film could have gone all wrong. But the director, producers and wonderful skills of top notch actors made it into the masterpiece that it deserved to be.
Oscar level performance by Jodie Foster.
A great film on several levels, satisfying, and it manages to include a powerful statement against the prevailing forces of medical dehumanization which are now under fire from many different quarters.
Highly recommended!!
Movie Review: one of my favorites
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is one of my favorites. It demonstrates through the character of Nell the fact that the world is completely ours to make, just as Nell and her family made and lived their own unique world all alone in the isolated cabin in the wilderness. She had her own language, a distorted version of english she learned from her mother who had had a stroke and talked "funny". Some people might not realize the inherent legitimacy of Nell's and her mother's shared language.
So, her mother dies, as does her sister, and she is discovered by the grocery delivery guy who has to ride a bicycle out to the cabin.
At one point Nell is in some type of court that's going to decide what to do with her because officially she doesn't exist and so fourth, she's still learning to speak english, and she starts airing things that she finds wrong with modern american society, and she points out the general lack of eye contact between people. I love that part. She basiclly points out the glaring fact that things are F'd up big time.
I feel that a significant amount of people in the world today have been coerced into the supposition that the world is not ours to make, so this movie I find very refreshing.
Movie Review: A tour de force of sensitive acting skill and direction
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought the DVD of this film, which I was completely unaware of, because of the previous excellent review.Jodie Foster's performance as Nell made an almost incredible character totally believable. How she didn't get an oscar for her performance says more about the oscars than about the enormous range and empathy of this superb actress.She was assisted by a wonderful complementary and vulnerable performance from Liam Neesom and the sensitive exploration of a very difficult subject by Michael Apted. I found myself crying without immediately understanding why. I then realised that the film had plumbed the depths of my humanity to levels I did not realise existed. It confronted the question of what it is to be a fully individual human being going beyond our place in a so called civilised society to our almost instinctive spiritual responses to the natural world and to relationship. This is a truly deep and rewarding film which deserves a wide audience. My only criticism is that the transition to Nell's independence was hurried towards the end in the interests of dramatic denouement.