Feminism is...
Home > REVIEWS
DVDs: Nell
Title: Nell (1995)
Starring: Jodie Foster, Liam Neeson, Natasha Richardson
Reviewer: Amanda Prouten
Nell (Jodie Foster) is raised in the remote backwoods of North Carolina, never having met anyone except her mother, whose speech is impaired from having a stroke. She is discovered by a doctor (Liam Neeson) after her eccentric and reclusive mother, Violet Kellty, is found dead in their spartan wooden cabin, devoid of electricity and running water. No one in the community knew there was a daughter and the daughter has never met strangers or been beyond the lake around her home and acts like a wild, retarded little animal, uttering her own language and hiding by day and basking naked in the moonlight by night.
A psychiatrist (Natasha Richardson) is sent to investigate the case, rather that put the girl into care and concludes that Nell is mentally retarded. The doctor contests the diagnosis, recognising patterns in the strange and eerie language that Nell speaks, so the two of them move into the woods to observe Nell and gradually find out more about the remarkable life she has led and how she came to be such a feral and eccentric creature.
The most powerful feature of this film is Jodie Foster's performance, for which she was nominated for an Oscar. Throughout the film she speaks in Nell's eerie, unearthly-sounding private language, which conveys the isolation and vulnerability of the character well beyond average dialogue. To say the language is eerie is an understatement – the indecipherable, sing-song jabber and the words 'lil jigday' echoed uneasily in my mind for weeks after watching the film.
Although not a horror film, as nothing particularly horrible happens, the film maintains a strong tinge of menace throughout. The vulnerability and innocence of the character of Nell, her spooky little voice, and the isolation of her cabin in the vast wilderness of the mountains all add to the edgy, spine-tingling atmosphere.
The cinematography is lush and ethereal with many enchanting scenes. For example, Nell bathing naked in the moonlight while happily uttering jibberish with the beautiful scenery of the lake, the mountains and the full majesty of nature all around her. She is a child of nature, an innocent in naked isolation and that is precisely why the scene is at once beautiful and also quite haunting and scary – she is not a citizen of society and doesn't know how to cope when society infringes on her world.
I won't tell any more about the plot or my take on the 'message' of the film. That's for you to find out and decide. I shall just finish with my overall impression that Nell is one of the most haunting, powerful, thought-provoking films I've even seen.
(PS -If you want to buy the video, search for it on amazon.co.uk, look up 'new and used' and you'll find mine (Amanda Prouten) for sale for a mere £2! Bargain!)
