By Susan Polk

Directed by: Micheal Apted

Starring: Jodie Foster, Liam Neeson, Natasha Richardson

Stars February 9 at the Longford Cinema and Hoyts Cinemas

Rating: **

Produced by Jodie Foster's Egg Productions company, Nell is just the sort of story that suits Foster's brave and off-beat style. Despite the moderate success of Little Man Tate, she has once again chosen to make a film about individuals who stand apart from society and their struggle to integrate and survive. With Nell it is not an inherent gift that sets the film's namesake apart, rather it is Nell's environment that has shaped her into what - on the surface - seems to be a sub-normal state of development, if not intelligence. Society's ability to assess and assist individuals who do not fit into the system is the central point of Nell, but it also poses the question: is it not better to listen with the heart rather than with the head, which is so full of preconceptions and is so quick to judge?

Nell's predicament begins when her reclusive mother dies and leaves her alone in a remote cabin in South Carolina. The body is discovered by the boy who delivers the groceries and the authorities are on the spot in no time, bringing Dr Jerome Lovell (Liam Neeson) to have a look at the hermit woman's corpse. In the course of their exploration of the property, Nell (Jodie Foster) is discovered hiding in the rafters. Her presence was never known to the outside world, and her behavior indicates she is severly retarded, prompting the courts to take action to institutionalise the "poor creature." Dr Lovell has an inkling, however, that although Nell is certainly different from most people, she may in fact be perfectly capable of living out her life in the mountains and that putting her in a home would be certain death to one accustomed to living a life of freedom.

His main adversary, psychologist Paula Olsen (Natasha Richardson) is on the side of the authorities at first, but after both she and Lovell set up separate camps on Nell's property in oredr to observe the girl Olsen begins to soften.

The gradual evolutions of perception that occur for all three characters unfold during this observation time, and it is this central portion of the film that is the most moving. Foster is outstanding as the senstive, expressive Nell, revealing layer after layer of her character with effortless skill and drawing the storyline back through Nell's past in a series of dreamlike sequences that are dizzying and exhilarating. Her gradual awakening to the outside world is not as gripping, but the focus of the film is not so much on her integration as it is her growing friendship with the two observers.

Neeson and Richardson give solid performances as well; although their roles are not as challenging as Foster's Neeson in particular does a fine job of a man tearing down his boundaries for the sake of another human being and learing much about himself in the process.

Nell is not without it's Hollywood garnishes, of course - there are a few noticable soft-focus, feelgood moment engineered to draw a tear or two from the audience, but the film is unusual enough to overlook these attempts at emotional manipulation. Enjoy Nell for what it is: a well-acted, beautifully shot film that offers more food for thought than most of its commercial counterparts.