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

A Nearly Great Film - Definitely Worth A Look

Nurse Betty has a terrific cast who pull off a script that dances through improbable sequences and provides great poignant interludes. The movie has wry insights into the ridiculousness of Hollywood and the extremes that ordinary people will pursue to follow completely unobtainable and false goals, yet it does these things with a gentle touch rather than a heavy hammer.

Renee Zellweger is great as Betty Sizemore, a mousy housewife in Kansas whose only emotional outlet is her daily dose of the soap opera "A Reason to Love", which features saintly widowed heart surgeon, Dr. David Ravell, played by Greg Kinnear. Betty is loved by everyone down at the tip-top diner where she is a tip-top waitress, but emotionally abused and cheated on by her husband, Del, played by Aaron Eckhart. Del is a car salesman with vague dreams of bigger things, sort of like Bill Macy in "Fargo". Del is also like a Coen Brothers character in that he is not nearly as smart as he thinks he is. In his big scene he tells Morgan Freeman's character how "stupid" the people are in his little Kansas town. Freeman has Del give a specific example of what he means by "stupid". Del responds with an answer showing Freeman and the audience that Del meets almost anyone's definition of "stupid".

Freeman is Charley, a freelance hit-man, and he is accompanied by Chris Rock as his apprentice, Wesley. Charley knows he is at the twilight of his career, and he considers himself a consummate professional, although he knows he is "a garbage man of the human condition." Wesley is not as professional, prone to quicker, less thoughtful action, and grudgingly accepts Charley's lessons on professionalism.

The early scene where Del tells Charley about the "stupid injuns" and other bigoted things ends with Wesley scalping Del and Charley finishing the job with his pistol, so a warning about Coen-flavored violence is appropriate.

Betty is in an adjacent room watching the videotape of that day's soap opera when Del is murdered.

The violent act snaps Betty's mind, resulting in her delusion that she had a previous life where she was soap Dr. Ravell's fiancée, following a plotline from the show five years ago. She takes a Buick from Del's lot and leaves Kansas for the first time, headed for Dr. Ravell's fictional hospital.

The joy in this film comes in the way that the other characters interact with the sweet but mentally unstable Betty. Consider the way a good-intentioned bartender in Arizona first encourages Betty when she tells her that she's trading in her no-good car dealer for a heart surgeon, then realizes that Betty earnestly believes she's headed to L.A. to hook up with a fictional character in a soap opera.

Later the magnificent Allison Janney appears as the producer of the soap opera, first amazed at Betty, who she assumes must be play-acting as an audition for the show, then ready to exploit the publicity Betty generates as a result of an incident that I'll not tell you about.

The heart of the film is the equally fictitious relationship between Morgan Freeman's Charley and the mental image he creates about Betty. Charley places Betty on a mental pedestal as a paradigm of ideal womanhood. When he learns that she has driven halfway across the country to "reunite" with a soap opera character he is incredulous. "A soap opera!? She just wouldn't do all this because of a soap opera!" he tells his apprentice.

But she would.

Enjoy. October 14, 2008

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

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