Nell and Mince Pies

Last night we watched Nell, which stars Jodie Foster, Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson. This is a story about a young woman who was found living in a remote shack without modern amenities. Nell had been raised by her mother, who spoke poorly due to the effects of a stroke, and consequently Nell's version of English was at first assumed to be the nonsense of a severely mentally handicapped person.

Jodie Foster's acting in this film was extraordinary. I've been an admirer of her work for years anyway but this intense performance was fascinating.

The film occasionally strayed into sentimentality, and there were a few little holes in the plot. Where was Nell's mother getting money from (which she exchanged for groceries delivered to a rock near their home, the money being left in a purse there). If the mother - who died at the start of the film - had needed to buy food so would Nell, an issue which was ignored by the plot. Trust me to spot a glitch in the practicalities!

Richard's in the kitchen cooking mince pies as I type this. He's using frozen pastry, the type that's pre-rolled. He forgot to defrost it, so "melted" it a bit in the oven. I advised him it might be a good idea to remove the plastic wrappers. He tried to do this and, being half-frozen, the pastry sheets cracked into pieces. He "melted" it a bit more then squashed it all together, rubbed flour into it to soak up the sticky bits, and rolled it out again. Now I can smell the results cooking in the oven.

Mince pie, anyone, hmm? No, I thought not! Bleurch.

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