Jodie Foster is a highly acclaimed actress known for her versatile and captivating performances. Yet, perhaps one of her most underrated roles was in the 1994 film Nell, where she portrayed a young woman living in isolation in the Appalachian mountains. The film not only showcases Foster’s exceptional acting skills, but also offers a compelling and thought-provoking story. Here’s why you should watch.
A Unique and Challenging Role
When it comes to talent on screen, Foster always delivers. With a career spanning over five decades, she’s proven time and time again an almost uncanny ability to transform herself. Her portrayal of Nell is a testament to that talent. Nell is a woman who grows up isolated in the wilderness, away from society and any form of human interaction. Because so, she develops her own language and way of life, making her wholly unique. Foster seemingly effortlessly brings that uniqueness to life, capturing Nell’s innocence, vulnerability, and strength in a stirring and physical performance (one that garnered her an Oscar nomination). Just for that, the film is worth seeing.
The Language
Playing a character who has lived so differently and separate from our others is no easy feat, but Foster gives it all the more depth by learning and delivering a made-up language just for the film. It’s one thing to tell a story in a language we know (or perhaps can translate into subtitles), but to have the story of a person told through something entirely foreign to the audience makes for a whole new set of challenges, and Foster gives that sense of unfamiliarity a real punch. It deeply separates Nell from us, adding to the isolation, and ultimately, the emotional toll of living so. Foster simply sinks into the part, giving Nell a powerful sense of agency in a setting that seems set up to strip her of it. The language is crucial in bridging her to us.
Understanding Humanity
Nell is thought-provoking and emotionally charge, for sure. Its exploration of isolation, identity, and human connection are pillars that hold up the entire film as Nell is introduced to the outside world, struggling to adapt. We the audience is forced to confront our own ideas of what it means to be “normal”, even as we rightfully seek to displace what that definition may be. The film helps underline the importance of human connection, and with Foster’s performance and co-star Liam Neeson‘s excellent work, connection is at the heart of plot. We reach out and we learn from each other. If we can do that on the small scale the film portrays–one-to-one–it’s a lesson worth spreading community-t0-community.
The Power of Authenticity
What is Nell? Who is Nell? She lives is a world unlike what most any of us recognize or understand. Director Michael Apted, working from a screenplay based on the play Idioglossia by Mark Handley, builds a landscape that is rich with identifiable moments yet set in a place that feels out of reach. That balance, along with the performances and a quietly emotive score by Mark Isham, truly establish a greater sense of authenticity. It’s our jolt from our reality, that someone could actually be like Nell, that makes it all the more potent in accepting who and what she is. Nell never idolizes or exploits the concept of Nell the character, but asks us to consider who she is in each of us, that perhaps there is a ‘Nell’ inside of all that we hold in isolation. It feels real.
Nell may not be one of Jodi Foster most recognized films, yet its themes and impact are all the more relevant than they were when it was released. It’s what to watch.