Nell Movie Review

“Nell” is the drama that describes the whole life of a young girl, who was raised without any knowledge and experience of civilization. Nell has never been taught of any kind of conventional language. Her childhood was completely isolated from the outside world. As the result, the only person she could communicate with was her little twin sister. And what they used to communicate with each other was their own made-up language. After her twin sister’s death, her imagination about her twin sister has still existed.
Still, that is the only one she could talk to. Something that’s really interested here is how Nell saw herself when she looked at the mirror. There are obviously two different reactions and feelings when Nell was looking at the mirror. First, at the beginning of the movie, it’s like that her reflection in the mirror was another person, who was her twin sister; a she were like playing with her sister. The other scenes are Nell used the mirror when combing her hair and dressing; this is just like what a normal person does.
In this case, her looking glass self based on the perception of how other think about her. I guess, these two different reactions refer to the appearance of Jerome and Paul. In the film, after seeing Jerome and Paul, Nell started learning about varying things in the outside world. I guess, every times of learning, Nell tried to image what Jerome and Paul expected her to be or to do. Therefore, it’s like she was taking on the perspective of generalized other which is Jerome and Paul.