Nurse Betty (2000)

A frenzied, screwball comedy with a lighter-than-light touch, Nurse Betty is a radical departure for director Neil LaBute, who helmed the vitriolic In the Company of Men and Your Friends and Neighbors. Betty (Renée Zellweger) is a perky Kansas waitress whose sole happiness comes from her obsession with the television soap A Reason to Love, starring dreamboat doctor David Ravell (Greg Kinnear). When her slimy car-dealer husband (Aaron Eckhart) enters into a drug transaction that goes horribly awry, Betty inadvertently witnesses the carnage and, in shock, becomes Nurse Betty, determined to reunite with her long-lost love, Dr. Ravell. Tailed by two hit men (Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock), Betty heads to L.A. a determined woman, unaware she has their huge drug stash in tow. Though it takes a good half-hour to get going, once LaBute and the movie hit top speed, it's a surreal, often brilliant ride, as Betty's fantasy and reality collide, with unexpected (really unexpected) developments. The screenplay (by John C. Richards and James Flamberg) is wickedly inventive, and like his previous films, LaBute has assembled a peerless cast. Zellweger is charming and daffy in her best performance since Jerry Maguire, and Freeman is by turns menacing and touchingly romantic in his obsession with Betty. Kinnear is the epitome of self-serving shallowness (and makes us love him all the more for it), and Rock finally shakes his standup persona and emerges as a great comic actor. Look also for a scene-stealing Allison Janney as the producer of Kinnear's soap. Most movies rarely get such talent operating at full capacity, and Nurse Betty soars because of it. --Mark Englehart Amazon.com

funny comedy with interesting message

This movie is funny throughout. The acting is really good. Chris Rock who I have always thought is funny, but not necessarily a great actor does a great job of playing a young overeager hit man. Although, the characters of both Freeman and Rock I believe turns out to be a little too sympathetic, they brutally murder a man, but they win the audience sympathy through humor. I think the movie has an interesting message about getting overly involved in a television show. I remember the 1980s hearing people talk about the characters of Dallas as though they were real people. In this case, the character goes crazy and is swept into that fantasy world. That some people get too involved in fictional T.V. shows seems to be an underlying theme worth paying attention to. However, sometime the movie is a little ridiculous. It is hard to believe that the movie star of the film would not have figured out something was wrong with Betty long before she gets onto the movie set. Still, it is fun and comical movie. July 21, 2008

GREAT FUN!

Ok, you have to trust me on this. This is a great movie. If the fake violence upsets you (the blood isn't real, and the people are actors) you can fast-forward through the offending two minutes at the beginning and the end, and just enjoy the immensely entertaining and sometimes hysterically funny ride with Renee, Morgan, Chris and Greg. The entire cast is great. Renee is brilliant. I've watched this movie 3 times over the years and I laugh harder each time. As funny as it is, there are some scenes with Renee that are amazingly touching. Don't miss this one. June 9, 2008

Totally captivating...

This is one of those movies that I really didn't know if I would like it or not, based on critical reviews and those here on Amazon.

Now, I'm sorry that I waited 7 years before seeing it. I loved it.

First, I remember original reviews that said that the movie was laughing at a woman with a mental breakdown. TOTALLY WRONG!!! One of the main reasons this movie works is that it does not laugh at its protagonist, but is very much WITH her. You really care about her--and much of that is because of the great performance by Renee Zellweger.

This is not a movie to "classify"--and it is all the better for it. If it had been played straight--as a drama or thriller, it wouldn't have worked. The "comedy" approach was just right--although I wouldn't classify it simply as a comedy, even a "dark" one. It's too much multi-layered for that. If anything, I was very moved by it.

For those looking for a nice, simple, easily classifiable flick, this won't be for you. For those who are willing to check their expectations at the door and just go for a very satisfying ride, this is one's a winner.

November 23, 2007

Ok

Cute story line. Little too dramatic on the violence. I will always love Renne though - great as usual. November 21, 2007

Wacky

I must confess upfront that I really like Renee Zellweger. There is something vulnerable in almost all of her performances, something sad and yet hopeful in her eyes. Here she is a waitress with a straying, drug dealing, car salesman husband. But no matter: she's hopelessly in love with a doctor, rather, a character on an afternoon TV soap opera. When her husband is killed, she sets out to Los Angeles with the delusion that she is somehow part of the doctor's/actor's life. And she succeeds after a fashion. She even dresses like a nurse, all white and crisp, and tries to get a job in a fictional hospital. People think she is joking, but she is delusionally serious. Then she saves an accident patient's life with a procedure she saw used in the soap opera....

The movie is often funny, with pathos, jeopardy, and a completely satisfying outcome. My only criticism is with Chris Rock, who plays one of the men who is chasing Nurse Betty (Zellweger). Chris Rock plays Chris Rock, the vulgar comedian whose only schtick is words that most people do not say in polite society. I'm not amused by his comedy routine and I'm not entertained by his performance in this movie. August 31, 2007

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