The only prize that the usually excellent Jodie Foster deserved for her performance in the God-awful "Nell" was a Booby Prize, not an Oscar nomination. The movie and her performance are both cloying, manipulative embarassments. I sat through the whole precious, fey, numbingly predictable piece of claptrap, dumbfounded that this normally intelligent and thoughtful actress could have experienced such an extended bout of temporary insanity as was needed to give this particular performance. Everyone's entitled to mistakes, I guess. The jaw-dropping thing is that some people actually like this movie, and not just as camp! By the way, it also features Liam Neeson at his most constipated, and Natasha Richardson's along for the ride too, though its hard to notice either of them while Jodie's so busy making funny faces and gurgling.