Nurse Betty

People keep asking "is this a romantic comedy?", "a black comedy?", "a violent thriller?". If you're the kind of person who is not comfortable with a film unless you can safely store it into one of five or six comfy little categories, move on (or as Jack Black says, "go to the mall!"). To quote Roger Ebert, "audiences lobotomized by one-level stories may find this confusing". It's really a sweet little comedy that breaks a number of 'sweet little comedy' rules, by introducing real terror and a few (count 'em - 3) scenes with a bit of gore. Like Jonathan Demme's minor masterpiece, SOMETHING WILD, we are taken out of a safe little world (Kansas, literally) to another dimension. This dimension is part Oz and part grit. Oz is the fantasy life of the main characters (for Zellweger it's Kinnear, the fictional doctor on a soap opera, and for Freeman it's Zellweger, who he sees as a sort of modern Doris Day). Intertwined with the fantasy is the frighteningly realistic fact that Freeman and his son Wesley, are hit men. What hit men do ain't pretty. I'm personally relieved that this is not a cute comedy with 'widdle cuddwly' hit men who are really not so bad because after all, their violence is bloodless: we can overlook what they do. UH-UH! We are not left off the hook that easily! On the other hand, Morgan Freeman is an authentically charming guy, and in many ways, this film contains some of the most sparkling romance (real and/or imagined) that's been seen on the screen in a long time! This indeed is a film that breaks many conventions while celebrating others, but be forewarned, this is not a safe, cuddly film. You're not in Kansas anymore!

LaBute's 'Nurse Betty' tells the story of a young housewife (and part-time waitress) in search of the man of her dreams. Sounds like another fluffy romance, no? Not quite! Her adulterous trash of a husband is scalped. Two hit men, a father who's about to retire and his son, are after her (the father happens to be in love with her). The man of her dreams is a character from a soap opera...she travels half the country just to be with him. Little does she know that it's only an illusion. Yes, it is a bizarre little comedy but fun nonetheless. Zellweger proves to be the perfect choice to play Betty. She delivers a very nuanced, comic and moving performance. Has Morgan Freeman ever gone wrong? He's just laugh out loud hilarious. Chris Rock too takes a chance playing the villain and does a fine job. Greg Kinnear and the supporting cast that includes Tia Texado, Allison Janney, Aaron Eckhart, Kathleen Wilhoite and Crispin Glover are all good. the soundtrack is beautiful and very romantic. It just adds to the surreal mood of the film. A lot of the film takes place on the road giving us glimpses of the beautiful American landscape and an adventurous feel. Towards the end, there's a beautiful scene between Morgan Freeman and Renee Zellweger (well I can't say what it's about without giving spoilers) which is the real turning point in Betty's life and the way that scene was presented amidst the chaos in the next room is amazing. 'Nurse Betty' is a sweet film that dares to go against the usual standards of American comedy. There are some very graphic scenes of violence and there's the element of suspense as the father and son track down Betty. Yet, it manages to stand as an adventurous comedy that is uplifting and brings a smile.

There's much to enjoy here if you like movies because of the actors. I was attracted to this film because of Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock who always deliver, but there's also great acting from the rest of the cast, most notably Zellweger but Kinnear is also perfectly casted as is the rest, no exceptions. All a joy to watch.

And then there's the offbeat plot with a woman living in a fantasy of being a soap character that takes over her life and makes her forget that she was just a waitress in Kansas with a cheating husband who got killed in front of her eyes by hitmen. Sometimes I thought the movie was thrown way off balance with the sudden bloodshed but most of the time it was a very warm film. It was the wonderful, strange mixture between cold reality and movielike fantasy that made it interesting. It's good for a couple of dosed laughs but I would classify this as a tragic comedy with a relatively happy and satisfying ending, tho it may be cheap to some. Funny thing is, as life can be stranger than film, all in the movie could in theory happen! And the focus is still very much on human emotions so in that way the movie is still down to earth.

Better than I expected, this film rules, can't get enough of Morgan or Chris but really everybody did a great job making this film.

8 out of 10

Nurse Betty (2000)

This is a sleeper, a dark comedy with enough inventive twists to call to mind The Truman Show but with a greater sense of reality to hold it down. Renee Zellweger is flawless as the naive, sweet, but utterly detached young woman named Betty who is addicted to a soap opera called "A Reason to Love." This seems sweet enough, but her husband is a jerk (totally) and things start to spiral, and get dizzy, as reality even for the viewer starts to shift ground.

Not that you are ever confused about what is happening or who the good guys are. The good guys are not Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock, for sure, as this unlikely and comedic father and son duo get involved, incidentally at first, in Betty's strange inner and outer life. A chase of sorts ensues, the soap opera becomes reality, and then reality becomes soap opera. And it's really hilarious and inventive and fast paced.

Is it a total work of genius? Probably not. Maybe Charlie Kaufman would have added another twist in there (I'm not sure how), and certainly some of the side characters could have seemed less cardboard, or less awkward as actors. But Zellweger is unbelievable (really, your jaw might drop at how convincing she could play her mental blindness, and her awakening, of sorts). And Morgan Freeman is his usually convincing and engaging self.

The utterly disgusting violence of one 20 second scene might turn off some viewers near the beginning, but if you can keep watching, the movie gets better from there. Much better.

The Bad: The gimmick of this film, as with very many, is contrast. This time its the well-exercised contrast between mindless brutality and open, honest innocence. What's new is the ratcheting up of the extremes. The violence is a new extreme in this context. How much more can we escalate? Is our own innocence so permanently numb?

The Good: This film is remarkably sophisticated in its self-referential layering. Here is an indicator that in this category at least the general intelligence level in the US is rising. It takes real abstract thinking to appreciate this, and one imagines that an audience in the 80s would be thoroughly puzzled.

Simple films with theatric self-reference usually mix real life with a play-within-the-play. "Shakespeare in Love" and "illuminata" are of this ilk. Slightly more complex is real life within the play as with "The Truman Show." But here we have a new and lovely evolution, six layers of self-reference.

We have the layer of the real-life Renee and her film character. I am in no doubt that the marketing of Renee as the new America's Sweetheart is the real basis of this effort. So Renee playing the public Renee. Then we have Renee playing Betty. We are lead to believe that the three are simultaneously real. But this has been common for 75 years.

What's new is Betty "becoming" Nurse Betty. Another layer, and then full circle as the "real" nurse Betty becomes the play Nurse Betty. This last is assumed before it actually happens. Finally, we have Freeman's fantasy angel Betty, which we assume is the root of all the conflated layers. That makes six layers by my count. Think about it: this film requires a sophisticated viewer. As it will likely be a big hit, that sophistication must exist in the masses. Wonderful!

Incidentally, only two people in this film can act, and one is not Chris Rock. What's with this guy?