This movie was such obvious Oscar-bait, and yet it mostly got ignored. It's probably like Kirk Lazarus from Tropic Thunder said-- she was trying so hard to look retarded, sound retarded, and act retarded, that she couldn't make the audience connect with the character. Instead, she relied on the incomprehensible mechanics of the script to force the audience to feel for her character, and it just plain didn't work. Never go full-retard.
shareIf I remember correctly, Foster's character, Nell, was brought up in isolation by her reclusive mother, and had no mental imapairment.
shareOscars are funny things...sometimes you don't know why they are awarded to actors or films or technical staff...They just get the nod. As for the retard comment? I don't buy it. I saw this movie when it first came out, several times since and most recently tonite. I didn't see retard, I saw someone who was raised to adulthood without society's interventions. Someone who created herself after her twin died at a young age. yes, mom was there but is a child always with a mother? Doesn't a child even in our modern homes have 'alone' time? Yes, but in our society we have thousands of various imputs...Nell had only her mother and the trees and lake around her...and her sisters body that she must have sneaked away to visit often as it seems it was a ritual. So, retard? Nah, I ain't buying it.
shareTimstuff- Why do you feel the need to use the word, "retarded"? Do you have any idea how ignorant you appear when you use that word when there are so many better terms available. It's just a cruel word.
shareWhy is retarded a bad word?
It only means "held back", which is exactly what Nell was.
Everybody is retarded in one area or the other ^^
Maybe it's because I've been smoking but Nell just cracks me up every time she pops up ^^ Whe' di' da' lor' go'?
If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.
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And you are an ignoramus. Retarded is just a word. It doesn't even nessecarily refer to someone who has a mental impairment. It is not a derogitory term. People like you who try to be so PC are just afraid that you'll be accused of being offensive that you let other people dictate how you think and speak. I hope I didn't hurt your feelings.
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I think her performance was very sincere, and in being sincere, was very sentimental. People will either accept that and appreciate her performance, or will be uncomfortable with it and laugh at it.
Another reason I think the film wasn't received so well is that it wasn't what everyone expected it to be. The mystery of who Nell was turned out to be something very simple and not so glamorous at all. She turned out to be a normal person, not a label - not abused, not neglected, not impaired, etc. People might have wanted something more "interesting" than that.
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I would not call it mental illness. She grew up isolated from civilization in the care of her mother who was unable to speak straight English due to a stroke if I remember right. Her problem was basically a lack of socialization complicated by her mother who chose to live in isolation and thus doomed her daughter to the problems she had when the doctor showed up and a lack of understanding of the situation that Nell was now in. Nell had no idea of what was and not acceptable in the world and easily duped such as when she entered the pool parlor and had no problem lifting her blouse to expose her breasts to the knot-heads who were using her. She needed exposure to the world and its standards and mores of what was acceptable and not acceptable in this larger and more open world that she now lived in. BTW- the word retard has become unacceptable because people don't seem to care if a term or word is used in its correct context. In terms of usage relating to a human being it is usually misused. In terms of machinery or other non-human types of usage then it is probably correct such as retarding the spark when starting up some engine, etc.
shareMaybe they meant mental illness as it was portrayed with the officers wife and not Nell?
shareJohn Mills went full retard, and he won the Oscar. If people think Foster did, then they probably didn't watch the movie/pay attention.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiYF7pUPuFs