Rating: 
Summary: HILARIOUS!
Review: The funniest comedy ever made! Jodie Foster and Liam Neeson deliver dead-pan comedic performances that will leaving you howling and clutching your belly. This film has some of the greatest dialogue of all time, such as "Little doggies, Nell, little doggies!" If you need a good laugh look no further!
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing story with a truly great performance (Foster)
Review: The main thing I want to say is that this film contains one of the greatest, most haunting and truly memorable acting performances I have seen on film, and anyone interested in great acting should see it just for that reason.The story is also a lot more sophisticated than most. It is based on a play or story by the same person who wrote the screenplay for Shadowlands (which was also a beautiful and haunting movie, although very different from this). I believe the title of the original story was "Idioglossia," which conveys something of the fundamental idea. Idioglossia refers to the condition of speaking a "private language." Philosophers such as Wittgenstein have debated whether it is even possible to have a completely private language, since a language is designed to communicate, i.e. to share meaning with others, while a private language would defeat that intention. However, it is known that identical twins do sometimes create semi-private languages which allow them to communicate with each other, to the exclusion of all other human beings. In addition, when people grow up in very unusual circumstances, this may affect their speaking in ways that cause them to be unintelligible to others and even to be perceived as crazy and incompetent. NELL deals with these issues in a context that calls into question some of the premises of law, "mental health" and modern psychological research. The plot is contrived and simplistic in some ways. The penultimate scene in the courtroom requires some suspension of disbelief, although I found that it was both powerfully acted and beautifully written -- if one was willing to take it on its own terms. The very last scene, five years after the main action of the story, has a line that profoundly ties everything together. Observing Nell evidently thriving in her own way (and the very last line indicates subtly that Nell now can speak normal English), Paula remarks, "To think that I was going to change her!" and the Sheriff's wife -- who seems to have been cured of her chronic depression as a result of interacting with Nell -- replies, "But you did! Didn't you know?...You were the first -- the first one who needed her!" This notion that personal transformation occurs out of the opportunity to contribute is something that goes way beyond the other more intellectual issues in the film. I should also mention that the scenery in the film -- the mountains of western North Carolina -- is stunningly beautiful, and the performances by Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson are very pleasant, even though they are completely overshadowed by the brilliance of Jodie Foster.
Rating: 
Summary: So many good things. Such a lousy last half-hour.
Review: There are a lot of things that just fits with this movie. The casting, for instance. Jodie Foster is amazing as Nell, and Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson are both very good. Another thing is the music. And not to mention the photography; "Nell" is one of the most visually beautiful pictures I've ever seen. When it comes to the script, there's nothing to be upset about for quite a long time. It's a moving and strong story about "different" persons not being alloud to be themselves, and about the world WE are living in, which has turned so cold and hard. As in most Hollywood pictures, the end however, S-U-C-K-S. (You've probably seen that Pacino/O'Donnell movie which Pacino won an Oscar for. My God - the first two hours were great and the last half hour made it deserve only two stars.) The scenes with Nell in the courtroom are nothing but emberrasing, and the "five-years-later-sequence" is highly unnecessesary. I don't need to be fed with a tea spoon! Except for that, it is actually quite a good film. And Foster is great!
Rating: 
Summary: Performances good, but plot just doesn't ring true
Review: This 1994 film stars Jodie Foster as Nell, a young woman living alone in a remote area of North Carolina. She seems retarded at first until we realize that her mother was a stroke victim and she experienced an emotional trauma in childhood. This has resulted with her developing her own private language. When the good doctor played by Liam Neeson discovers her, he wants to keep her from the psychologists who want to hospitalize and study her. The court gives him three months to observe her in the wild, and he is joined by Natasha Richardson, a graduate psychology student, to do this observation. Jodie Foster's performance is outstanding. The audience cannot understand her language but her emotions are clear. As the film evolves, however, we do understand some of her words as she gradually learns to speak English. There's a subplot of a romance between the doctor and the psychology student and a few bad guys including a journalist who wants to expose her to the world. And yes, the cinematography is fine. However, the story does not ring true, not one bit. There are too many holes in the plot and a contrived silly ending. Specifically, we never understand how Nell manages to survive. We see her dancing naked in the moonlight but never see her looking for food or chopping wood or doing any of the thousands of things necessary to live all alone in a rural area. The film is also too long and the pacing slow. I just couldn't stop thinking of all the opportunities the writer of the screenplay missed to make the story believable. Unless you're a particular Jodie Foster fan and want to see an outstanding performance, I can't recommend this video. In spite of its ambitions, it just doesn't make it
Rating: 
Summary: Painfully cliche; unintentionally hilarious
Review: This is a wonderful, wonderful movie. And it is a great test of a relationship. Women, if your boyfriend or fiance is unwilling to watch this movie, or is not moved by it, dump him immediately and save yourself years and years of pain. If you are already married, get marriage counseling. Guys, this is a great movie. Even if you prefer action movies to chick flicks, the woman you are with will be totally moved by the movie and that you watched it with her. Parents, this is also a great movie for teenagers. Nell, played by Jodie Foster, has had no contact with anyone other than her now dead mother, so she has no sense of shame about her body. She is as free as a three year old in taking off her clothes to go swimming at night. Therefore, while there is nudity, there is no sexuality. And the nudity is not exploitive. (This is like the nudity you used to find on the pages of old National Geographics on articles about Africa.) On the balance, the sensitivity outweighs concerns about nudity, this may even be a way to spark conversation with your kids about puberty, etc.
Rating:
Summary: This is a great movie for women, men and parents!
Review: This is a wonderful, wonderful movie. And it is a great test of a relationship. Women, if your boyfriend or fiance is unwilling to watch this movie, or is not moved by it, dump him immediately and save yourself years and years of pain. If you are already married, get marriage counseling. Guys, this is a great movie. Even if you prefer action movies to chick flicks, the woman you are with will be totally moved by the movie and that you watched it with her. Parents, this is also a great movie for teenagers. Nell, played by Jodie Foster, has had no contact with anyone other than her now dead mother, so she has no sense of shame about her body. She is as free as a three year old in taking off her clothes to go swimming at night. Therefore, while there is nudity, there is no sexuality. And the nudity is not exploitive. (This is like the nudity you used to find on the pages of old National Geographics on articles about Africa.) On the balance, the sensitivity outweighs concerns about nudity, this may even be a way to spark conversation with your kids about puberty, etc.
Rating:
Summary: Some reviewers missed the point.
Review: This is an outstanding piece of work for all cast members involved, and deserves no less than five stars for that alone. As to the story, some reviewers have complained about Ms. Foster's nudity in the film, seeing it as unecessary. It is, actually, vital to the story in that it shows her to be an unashamed child of nature, unfettered by current social mores. Other reviewers have complained that the story is unrealistic, since it doesn't show her chopping wood, or gathering food. I would ask what, exactly, that footage would have added to the storyline. Any movie assumes certain functions are performed, such as eating, drinking, etc. Otherwise, all movies would be about twelve hours long, as we watched the characters, eat, bathe, use the toilet, etc. The point of the movie is that Nell is reflective of humanity's loss of connection with Nature. Once we were VERY connected to Nature, but have civilised ourselves away from that connection, but Nell has not been. Through the love and caring of the two psychologists, she is made aware of modern society, and HUMAN Nature. Thus, she is able to communicate to the more "civilised" people in the film what they have been ignoring their whole lives. This is why, at the end of the film, so many people are gathered together, just to be with her. We were designed to co-exist with Nature, not fight it, and Nell is a bridge to our lost knowledge. The movie also points out that, just because you don't understand something, or someone, it doesn't mean that they, or it, have no value.
Rating:
Summary: Deeply moving ...
Review: This is the story of Nell, a child of rape, raised out in the wilderness by her mother. Hidden away from the world, she is raised by a mother who has had several strokes and is aphasic (can't speak well). As a result of her isolation, she learns a form of English that sounds like gibberish.
When the elderly woman dies, Nell is left alone in the wilderness. She is terrified when people come to the house and she is found. She is deemed a "Wild Child". Enter Liam Neeson as the local visiting doctor and Natasha Richardson as a research psychologist that the doctor contacts. They study Nell closely and they both have different goals for her as the story unfolds.
To say much more would most certainly ruin the movie ...
This movie was compelling, deeply moving, and finally deeply satisfying. It will linger in your mind for days and days after viewing it. This movie is a keeper and may become a classic in the years to come. EXCELLENT.
Rating:
Summary: A film for thinkers, and a great performance by Foster
Review: This movie is not for everyone. If stuff akin to "Dumb and Dumber" and "Terminator" are your normal faire, you'll hate this picture. But if you like a drama with all kinds of thoughtful insights on what it means to be human and social, you'll appreciate this one. Foster turns in a spell-binding performance in the truest sense -- you feel like you've been drawn into another world after watching her.
Rating:
Summary: Great performances
Review: This movie is outstanding. I show it to my sociology class as a lesson on sociolization or the lack thereof and the effect on an individual.
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