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In 1994, Michael Apted, Jodie Foster, and Liam Neeson (well, and Natasha Richardson) joined forces apparently in the hopes of ruining their careers. It didn’t exactly work, but ‘Nell’ is certainly not at the top of anyone’s resume, and with good reason. Though certain critics fell for this, and it was practically guaranteed certain nominations, the film has passed into obscurity. Those who can recall the film at all are likely to smirk if you mention it. ***

Jodie Foster plays the titular role, a woman found to have been raised in utter seclusion. Her mother, a hermit of the highest order, has just passed away as we enter the film, and Nell is now on her own. Her home is in a remote corner of the woods, and she has never had any contact with anyone besides her mother. Nell isn’t discovered until the nearest town’s doctor is brought in when her mother’s body is found. Enter Liam Neeson as Dr. ‘Jerry’. Nell speaks, but not anything anyone can immediately understand, and Jerry turns to Natasha Richardson’s Dr. Paula for help. A battle immediately ensues as Dr. Paula wants to take Nell to a hospital where she can be studied, but Jerry wants Nell left alone. Yes, it’s exactly the story you expect. ***

A strange, and brief, romp through the judicial system sets the stage for a three-month period of observation, after which Paula and Jerry will have to return to court to try and make their respective cases with a bit more evidence supporting them. Now we can move on to the bit where Paula and Jerry both spend all their time studying the ‘naturalistic’, ‘simple’ ways of the woman who grew up cut off from society. From here the film ticks right along, checking all the boxes from the list of things such a film must do, and by the time we feel like we’re getting anywhere, we’re bored to tears. ***

Apart from the utterly trite manifestation of such a story, and the roll-your-eyes payoff of Nell’s down home wisdom on the virtues of quiet simplicity, the movie is painted so thick with ridiculous misconception and hyperbolic ‘truism’ that it comes across as the worst sort of fairy tale – one that has delusions of reality. Break this film down to its barest summary, and not only wouldn’t you want to make the film, you’d laugh at the very thought. Of course, that’s true of a lot of movies, and a lot of good ones besides, but in the case of ‘Nell’, the film never gets anywhere beyond that summary. There’s nothing ‘in the details’, because there aren’t details. There are only grand sentiments, generalities, and misapplications of psychology, which are intended to make some statement in typical after-school special fashion. –

For the release of a somewhat older film which did poorly at the box-office, and has since floundered into the realm of the unknown, the DVD transfer is a pretty good one. There were really no flaws I could put my finger on, and the film’s sweeping displays of natural beauty are captured quite well. The widescreen format, which is more or less wasted in terms of dramatic effect, offers a wonderful display of wide-angle shots of virgin forest and the like. ***

The sound is not especially a concern for the film, and apart from dialogue and a few quiet attempts at soundtrack there isn’t much to hear anyway. There are no flaws really, but you aren’t going to get much depth of range. It just isn’t that sort of film. –

Two commentary tracks are available. One by director Michael Apted, and one by star Jodie Foster. Apted’s commentary is heavy on the technical aspect of things. He talks a great deal about production, casting, the road to making the movie, so forth and so on. He also goes heavy into various aspects of filming, such as transporting equipment, building the sets, and such. Surprisingly, he gives a hefty account of the fact that those creating the film were rather lost on the exact of a ‘wild child’. Though they did some research on the subject, he admits that they no solid idea, based on anything anyway, how Nell ought to act. Given the exact particulars of her upbringing which are divulged in the film, they were really taking a leap in the dark. This is a doubly curious admission.

On the one hand, just about everything about the performance felt wrong to me, especially given the exact circumstances we find Nell in. She isn’t really a ‘wild child’, she’s been raised by her mother her entire life. Sure, her mother had several strokes in her life and had trouble speaking clearly as a result, but it isn’t as if Nell had never seen another person. The admission is odd then, basically because there is apparently (so far as Michael Apted knows anyway) any reason to think the film’s version of Nell has any sort of basis in reality. At least insofar as how such a person might actually be. On the other hand, the idea is even more strange because you’d certainly think the film might have hired on a few experts in the field. ***

Jodie Foster’s commentary track, perhaps even more than the film itself, seems an odd career move. We have no doubts about her decision to co-produce any longer, as it’s become clear that she’s absolutely smitten with everything about the movie, and story. Her commentary waxes philosophic at every turn, and she frequently goes into great, laborious detail about the psychological underpinnings of the whole situation. She tells us of the psychology of language, the psychology of people who have had strokes, the psychology of twins, the psychology of the language of twins, the psychology of losing a twin, and the psychology of the language of a twin who has lost a twin.

All the while, as though she were a visiting professor giving a presentation of a scientific paper, she never slips into a mode of any sort of doubt about her findings (or ideas). She even, looking back now as she is, defends the film against the criticism it received at the time with respect to her shiny, white teeth, clean hair, and so on. When the film was first released, several critics poked a bit of fun at the shockingly clean, straight teeth Nell had, and the fact that her hair seemed treated with the finest shampoos, etc., etc. Foster here tells us that these people have missed the point completely. This is a result of the upbringing the movie was meant to convey. Nell is a girl who has lived her life being told that strict adherence to rules, routine, and cleanliness were the way to live life. I’ll just leave that one open. –

If you happen to be a fan of the film, this is a release of surprising quality. Not many films which fall into such a ‘lost’ category, even if they did get a nomination for an Academy Award, get this sort of treatment, complete with two commentary tracks. I wouldn’t exactly going looking for it, and I doubt a resurgence in interest is at hand, but if you enjoyed it this is a fine release.

Marc Eastman

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