NELL
A film review by Eric Grossman
Copyright 1994 LOS ANGELES INDEPENDENT
You Tarzan, me Nell. December is here and that means we have hit the peak of the Academy Award hunting season. The latest contestant trying to grab some Oscar statues is NELL, the new movie starring Jodie Foster and Liam Neeson.
Deep in the forest, in a small cabin, hidden away from the rest of society by a reclusive mother, lives Nell (Jodie Foster). When a delivery boy accidentally finds her mother dead, Dr. Jerome Lovell (Liam Neeson) and the local Sheriff hike to the cabin where they discover this mysterious woman who speaks in her own language and is terrified of strangers. Curious and anxious to help her, Lovell approaches Dr. Paula Olsen (Natasha Richardson), a behavioral scientist, to help him diagnose Nell's condition.
Nell proves enigmatic at first and soon Olsen and Lovell are at odds about what is the best solution for her welfare. Interested in advancing her academic career, Olsen wants Nell in a hospital while the compassionate, slightly obsessive Lovell wants her left alone, afraid that she will become the guinea-pig of the month and then forgotten about in a little cell. A court tells them to observe her for three months in her natural environment to find more facts before a decision is made as to whether Nell should be taken from her home. The film then moves back to the mountains where Lovell and Olsen learn about Nell and come to terms with each other.
Not afraid of challenging roles, Foster has given herself a tough one in this film. It is a fine line she must walk to make her character mysterious and not laughable. Indeed, there are times where it is tempting to giggle out loud at her Nell-speak, but she overcomes it with her sheer commitment to the character. Her performance would have been more effective with a less is more approach because it is her non-verbal communication that is most expressive. Foster has very revealing eyes, a gift that all the best actors seem to have. It is through her eyes that we feel her happiness, her sorrow and her fear the most, not the ga-ga-goo-goo Nell-speak. While Foster doesn't hit the bull's-eyes, her portrayal of Nell works overall and it is more than likely that she will end up in the best actress category at various upcoming award shows.
Equally committed to his role, Neeson is proving once again that he is a very powerful actor. His Lovell character as written by screenwriters William Nicholson and Mark Handley (based on Handley's play "Idioglossia") is thin on the development and motivation side but Neeson's warm-hearted performance fills in the gaps and allows us to buy Lovell's gentle obsession with Nell. Neeson may also find himself with some nominations but the best-actor field is going to be far more crowded this year than the best-actress competition.
Natasha Richardson's Dr. Olsen feels more like a story device than anything else. The sub-plot of NELL (like most movies) is will the leading man and the leading woman fall in love. I won't answer that although I bet you can guess, I'll just say that their relationship is not that interesting. Olsen has other story functions. She is needed so that Lovell and Nell's relationship will not be construed as perverse and she is also vehicle that involves the film's antagonists, the scientific community. Richardson, with a decent southern accent, makes the most of what she has to work with but it is too bad that her relationship with Nell and Lovell could not have been more interesting.
Director Michael Apted (GORILLAS IN THE MIST, BLINK) makes the right choice of not pulling too hard on the heart-strings and making the film overly sentimental. If anything, he erred a too much on the subtle side. He and cinematographer Dante Spinotti show off the North Carolina countryside with some beautiful mountain vistas. Production designer Jon Hutman's sets are full of character and costume designer Susan Lyall dresses everyone authentically. The editing is by Jim Clark and the score was composed by Mark Isham.
NELL is the type of movie that has high aspirations. It wants to make profound statements about defying categorization and the folly of pre- judgment. However, it is the imperfect relationships between the characters that keep this film afloat, not its grand messages. NELL aims high and even though it falls short of its goals, there is enough good acting and picturesque scenery to keep it from crashing.
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