For: Nell Sigland For: Nell (band)

Nell is a 1994 drama film starring Jodie Foster as a young woman who has to face other people for the first time after being raised by her mother in an isolated cabin. The film was directed by Michael Apted, and was based on Mark Handley's play Idioglossia. The original music score is composed by Mark Isham. Foster was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for her role, and won a Screen Actors Guild Award. The two co-stars, Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson, married the year the film was released.

Tagline: Language beyond understanding. Life beyond words. Discover...

Plot summary

Nell Kellty's mother was paralyzed on one side, which contributed to the oddity of Nell's speech. She and her mother live in an isolated cabin in the mountains of extreme Western North Carolina. Technically, because she lives in a house, cooks her food, wears clothing and performs routine household tasks, she is not a "wild child" or feral child. She seems like one to outsiders at first, because of her terror of strangers, her ritualistic behaviors, and her unintelligible, idiosyncratic language. This language, called Nellish by the doctors studying Nell, is made up of English like phrases that are a blend of stroke-impaired speech and twinspeech, or twin language.

Once Nell's mother dies, the outside world finally confronts her through Dr. Jerome (Jerry) Lovell (Liam Neeson) and Dr. Paula Olsen (Natasha Richardson). When Lovell goes there to declare her mother dead, Nell screams and fights, but gradually adjusts to his presence as he visits more and more often.

Unsure what to do, he talks to psychologist Paula Olsen in Charlotte, who wants to bring Nell to a laboratory for tests. When Lovell fights this in the courts, he and Olsen are given three months to observe Nell in her own home; when this period of observation ends, the judge will rule on Nell's fate.

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