![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Nell_1994_film_poster-206x300.jpg\")
[The following review was published in The Kansas City Kansan on Dec. 23, 1994. Since The Kansan was a local newspaper, the editor included the fact that I was also teaching at a local high school.]<\/i><\/p>\n[The following review was published in The Kansas City Kansan on Dec. 23, 1994. Since The Kansan was a local newspaper, the editor included the fact that I was also teaching at a local high school.]<\/i><\/p>\n
By Steve Crum<\/p>\n
It is the innocence of Nell in Nell<\/i> that will squeeze tears out of most viewers. In fact, it is sometimes a rating experience to watch Nell<\/i> because we know the at any minute Nell\u2019s world will be invaded, her private life savaged.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Jodie Foster is Nell, and Jodie Foster will surely be nominated for an Oscar. Bank on it. Foster, who also produced, is stunning as the backwoods child-woman whose link with humans has been almost solely through her late mother. Since her mother was partially paralyzed and her speech grossly distorted, Nell\u2019s speech is similarly impaired through exposure. Add to that the mother abusive control over Nell. (She was never permitted to leave the house in daylight.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So what happens when a local doctor (Liam Neeson) is called to trek the boondocks after the mother\u2019s corpse is discovered? He finds Nell in hiding, and is obsessed with trying to communicate with her. A local psychiatrist (Natashia Richardson) is also involved. Another Oscar envelope, please, to Neeson. Neeson is a fascinating actor. As Oskar Schindler in last year\u2019s Schindler\u2019s List<\/i>, Neeson underplayed with powerful reserve. Now he excites us about discovering what makes Nell tick. He makes us care that he cares. That he knows too well how vulnerable Nell is only frustrates us more.<\/p>\n The parallel to Nell<\/i> is striking. The joy of communication lives in both films. Nell\u2019s doctor is driven in similar was as Belinda\u2019s, and once the truth is known, then what? The doctor has become the protectorate\u2014or as Nell calls Neeson\u2019s Lovell, her \u201cguardian angel.\u201d It is at this point, the last third of the film, that Nell<\/i> becomes contrived. Blame<\/p>\n the writers, William Nicholson and Mark Handley, for tacking on an epilogue (\u201cFive years later\u2026\u201d). Tack on director Michael Apted as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But it is the first two-thirds, encompassing the discovery of Nell that spotlights Foster, Neeson and Richardson\u2019s ensemble performances, that clinches.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n __________<\/p>\n GRADE on an A-F Scale: B+<\/p>\n (Steve Crum is the journalism teacher at Washington High School.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [The following review was published in The Kansas City Kansan on Dec. 23, 1994. Since The Kansan was a local newspaper, the editor included the fact that I was also teaching at a local high school.] By Steve Crum It is the innocence of Nell in Nell that will squeeze…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3708"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3710,"href":"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3708\/revisions\/3710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/9038fe1af1ddaedbd029974d0d6fa74b-1437747753-300x199.jpg\")
Piecing together Nell\u2019s language and personality, the two are fearful early on of a media circus once Nell\u2019s existence is known.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/nell-movie-4101360661-300x135.jpg\")
1948\u2019s Johnny Belinda<\/i> is the story of a deaf-mute young woman whose innocence was corrupted. Thanks to a sensitive local doctor who teaches her sign language, Belinda is able to tell him and community her story.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/8XEH12y78iVMRzqppBFkRhHXCj0ZvoTBTukzf1z3DHikAHsxCdQsSewrOg_eqebv8I_3oj2QbyQNscIqmfpFRSd1k7tLGK9qSXwrXYYRhDpda9PlVQs1920-w1920-h1080-1684577788-300x169.jpg\")
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