NELL
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1994 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: The familiar story of the feral child
and civilization discovering each other is given a
very polished and generally intelligent treatment
by Michael Apted. Beautiful Smokey Mountain
photography and some very good performances make
the first two-thirds very watchable. The last
third is disappointingly familiar. Rating: +2 (-4
to +4)
In the back woods of the Great Smokey Mountains of North Carolina an old hermit woman dies. When a policeman (played by Nick Searcy) and a doctor, Jerome Lovell (Liam Neeson) come to investigate and tidy up the loose ends, they find a loose end nobody knew about. The woman had a daughter Nell (Jodie Foster) who had lived virtually without human contact and who spoke a completely unintelligible language. Nell has been raised to fear people and her reaction to these invaders is pure panic. Lovell brings in a second doctor, Paula Olsen (Natasha Richardson), little realizing that he is sowing the seeds of a three- way battle for the fate of Nell. One faction will want her to remain in the wild, one will want to study her in an institution, and both will want to keep her out of the hands of the media who want to exploit her. Deep in the woods Lovell and Olsen competitively initiate studies to understand Nell and the forces that made her what she is, to decipher her language, and to ease her terror of strangers.
Michael Apted is singularly appropriate to direct NELL. Two of the major themes of his film are how Nell's childhood has molded her into the enigmatic woman that she is and how the outside world and mainstream society are a corrupting influence. Apted is the creator of the 7 UP, 7 PLUS 7, 21 UP, 28 UP, and 35 UP documentaries, which are released each seven years, examining at seven-year intervals the lives of 14 people and how they develop. He also directed GORILLAS IN THE MIST, THUNDERHEART, and the documentary INCIDENT AT OGLALA, each of which has a theme of the corruptive or exploitive influence of society on the innocent. Both themes are present in William Nicholson and Mark Handley's adaptation of Handley's stage play "Idioglossia." Nicholson, incidentally also wrote the screenplay for SHADOWLANDS. This story also looks at two approaches to science: one that tries to study in nature and one that prefers the laboratory approach, in vivo versus in vitro. In a violation of political correctness, unusual for Apted, the nurturing scientist, who sets up a pup tent and tries forming a relationship with Nell, is the man. The woman scientist's approach is to bring up a houseboat full of electronic equipment and to observe Nell with surveillance cameras.
The telling of the story is deliberate, like a scientific case study. For viewers who are not interested in the puzzle of understanding Nell's behavior and her language, the film will be as slow-paced as watching someone fill out a crossword puzzle or paint a picture. The writing requires at least a modicum of curiosity about the reasoning of anthropologists and how they do their work. Apted takes a good long time before he starts talking down to his audience and moving the story in what are, unfortunately, some very predictable directions.
As time goes by Nell and her language become more understandable. It is not entirely clear why this verbal fruit cocktail starts sounding more comprehensible. It is possible that the listener's ear becomes more attuned to the language or that the more Nell is around people the more she might start to imitate their speech patterns. I suspect, however, that the film is really a little less than honest by simply having Foster's language written closer to spoken English in the later parts of the film.
Foster's acting in dramatic scenes is nearly perfect, though her ecstatic, dance-like jaunts though nature seem a bit idealized. Neeson is compelling and sensitive. Probably he is typecast as being sensitive after playing Oskar Schindler. Richardson comes in a fair third for acting honors, but it is really Foster's movie. Also watchable is the photography of the Great Smokey Mountains, by Dante Spinotti. And though it lacks the breathtaking spectacle of his work for THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, his eye for the beauty of nature becomes an intergal part of the film.
This is not so much an original film as a familiar story done very well. Certainly it ranks among one of Apted's better dramatic films. I give it a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mark.leeper@att.com
.
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