Line #2 Film/Nell


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3	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/10201_1_large.jpg]]
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5	->''"Chicka, chicka, chickabee. / T'ee an me an t'ee an me. / Ressa, ressa, ressa me, / Chicka, chicka, chickabee."''
6	-->-- '''Nell'''
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8	''Nell'' is a 1994 drama film directed by Creator/MichaelApted, adapted from Mark Handley's play ''Idioglossia''. It stars Creator/JodieFoster, Creator/LiamNeeson, and Creator/NatashaRichardson.
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10	The movie opens with Dr. Jerome Lovell (Neeson) joining Sheriff Todd Peterson as they come upon a cabin deep in the woods of North Carolina and discover the passing of the only resident there. While looking around, Jerome comes upon Nell (Foster), who has had almost no experience with other humans. Nell speaks her own hybridized language and while she competently handles household tasks in the real world she is also living in a fantasy. Since she is of age, the local medical center want to have her come in for study, believing her to be a real WildChild. (She's not. She was raised (lovingly) by her mother, socialized with her sister, wears clothes, cooks her food and lives in a house.)
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12	A judge holds a hearing after Jerome spends some time observing Nell from afar. He decides to grant a three month continuance to further clarify whether Nell can live by herself in the cabin or has to go to a mental health center. The center sends Paula Olsen (Richardson), a psychology student, as a representative to observe and study Nell while Jerome takes it upon himself to continue to observe and study her as well.
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14	Gradually, Jerome begins to interact with Nell and Nell soon begins to interact with both Jerome and Paula. They eventually learn from Nell that she had a twin sister who died when the pair were young. When a newspaper reporter learns of, and comes upon Nell in her cabin, Jerome and Paula decide it is safest to take Nell to the hospital. This decision is forced when a helicopter representing a television crew comes upon the cabin. When she arrives at the medical center, [[FromBadToWorse things go bad for Nell]].
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16	The movie resolves in a courtroom scene where the argument of Nell belonging in the mental health center or being able to live in her cabin comes to a head. The rights of an individual versus social management, preconceived notions and assumptions, and not judging by surface appearances are among the themes of this surprisingly complex film.
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18	----
19	!!Tropes used include:
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21	%%* BreakTheCutie: Arguably happens to Nell between her sister, her mother, and the medical center scene.
22	* CharacterTics: A heavy use by Nell, particularly lifting her arms over her head and using her arms to mimic physical gestures to her dead sister.
23	* CharacterTitle: The title of the movie is named for the main character, Nell.
24	* ChildByRape: It's revealed through old newspaper clippings that Nell and her sister are the result of their mother's rape.
25	%%* CloudCuckooLander: Nell.
26	%%* {{Cloudcuckoolanguage}}: Nell's invented language.
27	* DeepSouth: It takes place in North Carolina, but the movie is quick to utilize crude redneck stereotypes who express sexual mockery of and towards Nell. There are also gentle, decent Southern types, especially good-natured Sheriff Peterson, his troubled but sweet wife Mary, and SimpleCountryLawyer Don Fontana.
28	* DoNotGoGentle: Nell accepts that everybody dies and that she will eventually die. Ties in with her [[RousingSpeech courtroom speech]].
29	* DumbStruck: Nell becomes mute after her [[HeroicBSOD visit to the medical center]].
30	* EloquentInHerNativeTongue: Once you realize that Nell uses Biblical words and phrases in a heavy [[UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents North Carolina accent]], mingled with her mom's aphasic traits and a secret language from her childhood, she becomes almost completely comprehensible.
31	* FanDisservice: Nell in the bar room, when she exposes herself despite the verbal taunting thrown at her. (It's clear she thinks the boys are just being playful and showing her a new dance.)
32	* FanService: The scenes where Nell skips over the rocks and proceeds to dive into the lake... although this comes off more as Maxfield Parrish fairylike, not sexy.
33	%%* FriendshipMoment: Happens several times between Dr. Lovell and Nell.
34	%%* HeroicBSOD: Happens to Nell after she is taken to the medical center.
35	%%* HollywoodPsych: Paula Olsen.
36	* HomeSweetHome: Nell and her cabin in the woods, to the point of it being featured strongly in the final scene of the movie.
37	%%* InnocentFanserviceGirl: Nell wears clothes, but has no problem in taking them off.
38	%%* JerkAss: Billy Fisher in the bar scene.
39	%%* LampshadeHanging: Just a bit. "She's having a good time. She's discovered popcorn! Now she can go to the movies!"
40	* MoodMotif: Dr. Lovell plays a Patsy Cline song, which causes Nell to run back to her cabin -- she's never heard amplified music like that before. Later, when in the town, Nell hears country music coming from a bar leading to the above FanDisservice scene. Mark Isham's score includes a hammered dulcimer, evoking traditional country life.
41	* MrFanservice:
42	** Dr. Lovell strips down and goes SkinnyDipping with Nell.
43	** Early in the film, when Dr. Lovell is hauled out of bed by a phone call, Neeson has a nice shirtless moment.
44	%%* OddFriendship: Happens between Dr. Lovell and Nell. Also arguably occurs between Dr. Olsen and Nell too. In fact, as things progress, they become her adoptive family.
45	* PapaWolf: Dr. Lovell develops this attitude towards Nell, including physically shoving two people for just interacting with her (although one deserved it and the other scared the daylights out of her with his flash camera).
46	* ParentalAbandonment: Nell's mother raised her and her sister by herself without a father figure. Paula's father abandoned the family when she was a child.
47	* RapeAsDrama: About ten minutes into the picture, Dr. Lovell is given a news clipping revealing that Nell's mother was raped and she attacked the man who did it when he was caught. He realizes her mother became pregnant this way.
48	%%* RousingSpeech: Nell does this in the courtroom scene.
49	%%* TheSheriff: Todd Peterson.
50	* SinisterSurveillance: One of the first things Paula does is install cameras in Nell's house while she's sleeping. Jerome is furious when he discovers them, but doesn't make her remove them. He even asks her if she saw how Nell spoke to him for the first time.
51	%%* SkinnyDipping
52	* StupidScientist: "Experts" at Paula's presentation, including Paula at this point, watch a film of Nell communing with her dead twin sister May via mirror. Since they don't realize there's a twin, they think she's saying "me" in her thick Carolina accent, rather than "May." (The loving chant between the sisters includes the words 'tay and may,' and it's only when Nell whispers the chant with [[spoiler:Jerry and Paula's [[BabiesEverAfter little daughter]]]] that it's revealed to be 'Thee and me, thee and me.' Nell and May could even have been playing with 'May/me' in their twin language.) Cue the psychobabble explanations: "She has an objective self and a subjective self" and her gestures are "some kind of self-comforting."
53	%%* TalkingToTheDead: Nell towards her dead sister.
54	* TheyWouldCutYouUp: Jerome doesn't want this happening to Nell and remonstrates with Paula and Dr. Paley about their wanting to bring her into the hospital.
55	-->'''Dr. Paley:''' Because you can't take a baby and have it grow up in a lab.
56	-->'''Jerome:''' You want her to grow up in a lab?[[note]]Note the assumption that Nell, who is thirty, needs to "grow up".[[/note]]
57	%%* UndyingLoyalty: Nell to Dr. Lovell and vice versa. Also partly done with Nell towards Dr. Olsen.
58	* UnresolvedSexualTension: Occurs between Jerome and Paula throughout the movie. Heavily hinted attraction from both sides to the point that Nell seems -- or at least Paula thinks she does -- to interpret an argument between them over her status as "parents arguing," and forces them to make up.[[note]]Given that Nell wasn't raised with two parents, she might actually have remembered what her mother did if ''she'' argued with her sister -- forced the two to face each other and apologize.[[/note]]
59	* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: Nell picked up a very strange and unique accent from living alone for many years with a mother who already had a North Carolina Piedmont accent you could cut with a knife, and could only talk out of one side of her face following a stroke. Even without the twin-language vocabulary, her speech is so unique and incomprehensible that it could hardly even be called English any more.
60	** The one that drives viewers crazy is ''chickabee'', ''missa chickabee''. Chickabee is a variant on "chickabiddy," which goes back over a century as an endearment. Nell has adapted it into ''chicka'' for "dear" or "beloved" (she says ''chicka so'' at the hearing, which Jerry translates as "loved ones". Perhaps ''so'' is "soul"). She shows Jerry that ''missa'' is "little". "Little darling" or "little dear" is all it means. She has really adapted English, combined it with her and May's twin language, and created a creole.

Context Film / Nell