Review of Nell (1994) by Adam R — 23 Jun 2014

Paula (Natasha Richardson): What is it with you and Nell?

Jerry (Liam Neeson): It's like... there's no one else in the world. Like she doesn't need anybody.

Can you live your whole life that way, or does it drive you crazy in the end?

To say that Jodie Foster was amazing would be an understatement, she completely disappeared into the role and was no longer playing a character; she was, for all intent and purposes, Nell. What's more amazing was that I could somewhat pick up the supposed made up language Nell spoke in the film; even before Paula Olsen (played by Natasha Richardson) revealed that she may be speaking English, it was actually a little bit decipherable. It sounded just as they explained it: [SPOILERS] English but with a really thick accent and she was dropping the vowels in some of the words; plus some words ran together making it seem like one word. It basically, by now-a-day's term, a kind of "mush-mouth" English. Overall, the story was really engaging. It was deceptively compelling enough to make me tune in when I happened by it scrolling through the list of free movies on HBO. The character was indeed a fascinating case but her story seemed so tragic when you finally comprehend what had happened to her family. Everyone played their parts so beautifully, especially Foster but Neeson and Richardson had genuine on-screen chemistry as well. Pretty cool film and great cast, very well acted.