"Nell"
                             A film review by
                           Linda Lopez McAlister
                           on "The Women's Show"
                         WMNF-FM (88.5), Tampa, FL
                             January 14, 1995

   I finally got around this week to seeing "Nell," the film produced by and
starring Jodie Foster about a "wild woman," i.e., a woman raised deep in the
forest who has never had contact with any other human beings except her mother
(and, as we find out) a twin sister who died as a child.

   While the film has many things to recommend it, first and foremost Foster's
vibrant performance in the title role and predictably solid performances by
Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson as doctors who observe and befriend Nell, I
found myself disappointed in the film overall, and I've been trying to figure
out why. For one thing, perhaps because I, like the "villain" of the film, am
an academic and I wanted, as he did, for this to be an opportunity to learn
something about the effects of socialization on, e.g., gender role formation,
language acquisition, and the like. But the film is not based on a real case,
it is fiction, based on a play by Mark Handley, called "Idioglossia." And it
is riddled with odd and distracting contradictions and inconsistencies.

   Why are Dr. Lovett (Neeson) and the sheriff so surprised to find that
there's a second person living in the cabin when they find Nell's mother's
dead body laid out with daisies over her eyes. Why for most of the film are
the only two options that these supposedly intelligent doctors can think of
either leaving Nell totally as she is to fend for herself or locking her up in
a mental institution? No one talks about trying to get her a teacher and a
speech therapist so she can learn to cope with the modern world while still
living at her home. Such an artificial dichotomy fuels the dramatic trajectory
of the film, but it is also distracting and diminishes credibility. Other
characters are brought in an not fully explained such as the sheriff's wife
who has her own problems and to whom Nell seems to be drawn (because they look
alike)? Perhaps most unlikely is the two doctors giving Nell a copy of
something like "The Joy of Sex" to look at (not to mention Neesom's naked body
-- for Nell's eyes but not the audiences!) to "cure" her of her "phobia" about
men as "evil doers."

   I guess what it boils down to is that this is a visually beautiful film
peopled with fine actors and featuring a performance and characterization of
the title character that is awe-inspiring, but all this is housed in a
screenplay that is creaky to put it kindly. I guess I still think it's worth
seeing for that performance which is so imaginative and believable (except,
perhaps, the abrupt transition to the court room scene which may be an editing
rather than an acting flaw). But though Nell is fascinating to watch, "Nell"
is another (unintentionally) ironic Hollywood paean to the superiority of
nature over civilization.

   For the WMNF Women's Show this has been Linda Lopez McAlister on Women and
Film.
   Copyright 1995 by Linda Lopez McAlister. All rights reserved. Please do not
reprint this review without the permission of the author.