Nell (film) - Plot

Plot

When stroke victim Violet Kellty dies in her home in the North Carolina forest, the town doctor Jerry Lovell (Liam Neeson) finds a terrified young woman hiding in the rafters of the house. She speaks angrily and rapidly, but seems to have a language of her own. Looking at Violet's bible, Dr. Lovell finds a note asking whoever finds it to look after her daughter, Nell (Jodie Foster). The sheriff, Todd Peterson (Nick Searcy), shows Dr. Lovell a news clipping from which Jerry surmises that Nell is the dead woman’s daughter, conceived by a rapist.

Jerry seeks the help of Dr. Paula Olsen (Natasha Richardson), a researcher working with autistic children. Paula and her colleague Dr. Paley (Richard Libertini) are interested in studying a "wild child" (feral child), and Dr. Paley continues to call Nell this even after studying films which show Nell does not fit the "wild child" profile. Doctors Paley and Olsen immediately get a court order giving them permission to institutionalize Nell for "further study". Lovell is warned just in time to get his own lawyer and prevent it. After legal maneuvering, a judge (Joe Inscoe) gives Olsen and Lovell three months to interact with Nell and see what her actual needs are. Paula shows up on a houseboat with electronic equipment to monitor Nell's behavior; Jerry chooses to stay in Nell's cabin and quietly observe.

Almost immediately Paula discovers that Nell's language is English, based partly on her mother's aphasic speech after a stroke. Jerry and Paula begin a grudging friendship, although he detests her coldly clinical, analytical tactics.

Nell sleeps during the day or works inside her home, and is active outdoors only after sunset. She explains to Jerry that her mother told her about the rape and warned her that men were evildoers, citing Isaiah 1:4. As Nell comes to trust Jerry, she sees him as a friend, the "gah'inja" her mother promised would come. Jerry later realizes that "gah'inja" is Nell's phrase for "guardian angel." Using popcorn as an incentive, Jerry is able to lead Nell outside and into the sun. Afterward, Nell leads Jerry and Paula to the remains of a young child—it turns out that Nell once had an identical twin sister, May, who died in a fall while the two were playing in the woods. Nell treats May's remains with reverence and love, rather than horror.

Not long after, a reporter, Mike Ibarra (Sean Bridgers), learns of Nell's existence and visits her cabin. Nell is curious of the visitor at first, but is frightened by the flash when the reporter snaps a photo. At that moment Dr. Lovell arrives and throws the reporter out. The incident sparks an argument between Lovell and Olsen; Dr. Olsen believes that Nell would be safer in a hospital, while Dr. Lovell feels that Nell should be left alone and allowed to live as she pleases. Jerry and Paula decide that Nell should be shown a little of the world, and they make the decision to bring Nell into town.

While in town, Nell befriends the sheriff's depressed wife, Mary Peterson (Robin Mullins), but also has an ugly encounter in a pool hall with some raunchy boys until Dr. Lovell gets her out.

Word of Nell's existence spreads, prompting increased intrusion by the press, and Jerry and Paula are forced to spirit Nell away to a hospital for her protection. There, Nell becomes extremely despondent and unresponsive. Jerry removes her from the hospital and hides her in a hotel. Paula joins him, and at last they admit they love each other.

At the court hearing the next day, Paula's colleague Dr. Paley, who wants to study Nell in a controlled environment, delivers his opinion that Nell has Asperger syndrome and belongs in an institution. Jerry angrily interrupts several times. At last Nell comes forward and, with Jerry interpreting, speaks for herself, an action even her friends did not expect.

The last scenes take place five years later, as Jerry and Paula bring their own daughter to visit Nell in her house; it is Nell's birthday, and she is surrounded by friends from the town.