Nell [HD]

Foster's most challenging and impressive performance
While Hollywood is filled with movie stars, it can boast of only a scant few bona fide actresses. Jodie Foster, the consummate professional, is the cream of that small crop, and I respect no other actor or actress on earth as much as I respect her. Nell is a testament to her unlimited talent as well as her unmatched commitment to what she does. The character of Nell is a role most actresses would never consider taking; it's a far too difficult challenge to meet for a film that holds little promise to bring in money hand over fist. For Jodie Foster, though, what matters is the story to be told, not the glamour or the projected box office receipts. She gives an absolutely amazing performance in this film, one that has deserved far more attention than it has received; as I write this, there is not even a DVD version of the film available. If Nell is mentioned at all, it is almost always in reference to Jodie's Foster nudity in the film, and I would like to say straight out that her...

Warm and magical
In "Nell," Jodie Foster wows us, as usual, with a deeply felt, passionate performance. She is Nell, the "wild child" daughter of a backwoods aphasic hermit woman, who raised her all alone with no human contact. Nell's speech is all her own -- it is a striking combination of a private language she had once shared with her deceased identical twin sister, and an imitation of her mother's speech. Her mother, as I mentioned earlier, had aphasia, which includes major speech processing problems. Nell's speech was the basis for the title of the play upon which this film was based -- "Idioglossia." (I believe, for anyone out there who's into things like this, that the correct term would have been "idiolect," as the term for a language spoken by only one person.) Natasha Richardson and Liam Neeson bring constant love and warmth to Nell, and to the film, as medical/social-work professionals who attempt to break through to Nell by trying to learn her...

Deeply moving ...
This is the story of Nell, a child of rape, raised out in the wilderness by her mother. Hidden away from the world, she is raised by a mother who has had several strokes and is aphasic (can't speak well). As a result of her isolation, she learns a form of English that sounds like gibberish.

When the elderly woman dies, Nell is left alone in the wilderness. She is terrified when people come to the house and she is found. She is deemed a "Wild Child". Enter Liam Neeson as the local visiting doctor and Natasha Richardson as a research psychologist that the doctor contacts. They study Nell closely and they both have different goals for her as the story unfolds.

To say much more would most certainly ruin the movie ...

This movie was compelling, deeply moving, and finally deeply satisfying. It will linger in your mind for days and days after viewing it. This movie is a keeper and may become a classic in the years to come. EXCELLENT.

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