Nell

There is a Nell in all of us. A simple, feeling self. An embryonic, undeveloped self. A self skewed by special circumstances of development.

I remember Bowlby saying that our basic emotions are the same from infancy till death: fear, anger, joy, grief, love. Adults, the same as children. Our simple, feeling selves are fairly constant. We go through similar emotional rounds in different keys throughout a lifetime.

Images of our simple, feeling self can touch or repulse us, depending on a variety of factors, including how familiar we are with the background pulse of our beings. The same basic feelings can have destructive effects or add color and richness to living, depending on our relationship with them, and them with us — depending on what sorts of partners we are with our capacities.

Nell first appears on the repulsive side, but Dr. Lovell — let us call him Dr. Love, or Love for short — sees her true core. He may have achieved some level of sophistication, but he sides with the feeling self. It does not take long for Nell to warm to him. From panicky rage to fear to budding tenderness, trust, tendrils of attachment, moments of beauty. Love evokes new feelings in Nell, but Nell (we learn) has had much love in her life, and is sensitive to love. She touches Love's face, like a baby, child, hint of woman — a tuning fork vibrating with many feelings, a kind of paradigm of what we are like when we are close to each other, afraid, tender, reaching each other through our barriers and filter systems.

There are no really evil people in this movie, but many jarring notes.