Jodie foster is a amazing actress. this film is a great examination of how isolated from nature and our true origins people in modern society have become.
"(You're) nothing but an errand boy sent by grocery clerks to collect the bill."
I totally agree that this film is beautiful. I just saw it on cable, and at first I was a little skeptical of a movie about a "wild woman" played by Jodie Foster. But after watching it a second time, this movie touched a nerve so raw in me that I will always be thankful for this movie for helping me to heal. I just lost my Mom recently, and I couldn't stop crying after watching this movie. Jodie Foster is a genius! Truly brilliant!
It's a movie about letting go, about healing from a deep and profound loss of someone so special to you. It's about coming to terms of that loss, and then allowing themselves to be healed by people who love and protect you. It's a universal and profoundly human story. Though Nell is mysterious and somewhat backward, she is still pure, honest and childlike, without inhibitions. But something else is keeping her disabled from being to able to communicate with people. And it's not only her strange language or sheltered upbringing, but it's her traumatic grief over the lost of her best friend and sister in the world, which she has never been able to get over with or let go.
Some people thought that when she goes to the big city, to the hospital, that that is bad for her, when actually, when you watch closely again, you realize that it actually helps her to heal. She is forced to face her fears by taking her away from her familiar setting (and her sister's memory), when she is allowed to dig deep into herself to finally let go of her sister, and then begins to heal, grow up and open up to people.
This is an immensely deep, emotional, intimate, touching human story played with so much subtlety and honesty by Jodie Foster, Neeson and Richardson. But Jodie Foster steals the movie all the way, and she inhabits Nell so completely that it's just a stroke of genius, what can I say? Personally, I think it's the best performance of her career. Bar none. And for Ms. Foster, I think it was more of a labor of love for herself than for an effort to get another Oscar, and it really shows in her performance.
The scene where Nell says goodbye to her twin sister on the hotel balcony, and the last scene where she watches the little girl dance in front of her, reminding her of her lost sister and the deep pain that she feels is the most beautiful, powerful, heartfelt, truthful image I will always remember from the great Jodie Foster.
P.S. - I am against the nudity, although I think I might just pass a little in this movie because it's most certainly what her character would do. But then I would prefer that the moviemakers would have dealt with it more discreetly.
You bring up some very subtle points, pianopedal, about how going to the hospital was a catalyst for Nell to let go of her sister and her mother's deaths. That motivated her to open up to everyone around her.
Now, the court scene makes a little more sense. I originally took it as the film makers wanted us to take a leap of faith and suspend belief. All of a sudden, Nell was articulate enough and knowledgeable enough and aware of the outside world culture enough to know that speaking up in court was her last chance to retain her past lifestyle.
That's one smart lady.