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!

In a small Kansas town, beautiful blonde waitress Renee Zellweger (as Betty Sizemore) enjoys watching her favorite soap opera "A Reason to Love" starring handsome doctor Greg Kinnear (as George "David Ravell" McCord). Following a tragedy, Ms. Zellweger traumatically imagines she is a character in the soap opera she adores. As if she was on the TV show, Zellweger wants to work as a nurse and romance Mr. Kinnear. Tied in with the tragedy, her criminal Kansas customers Morgan Freeman (as Charlie) and Chris Rock (as Wesley) follow Zellweger westward, looking for drugs...

This could have been brilliant...

Artfully directed by Neil LaBute, the story by John C. Richards, "Nurse Betty" almost works. We have parallel American dream stories. First, there is the longing of Zellweger for the seemingly unattainable world existing only in "Hollywood". Knocked out of her mind by violent reality, she begins to live her dream. In her delirium, Zellweger pursues TV star Kinnear, with whom she has an imagined relationship. While this occurs, a more subtle loss of mind is experienced by Mr. Freeman, who begins to fall in love with Zellweger's character. A violent old Black criminal fantasizes a relationship with a pretty young White woman. Even more daring is which relationship is given the go, and which one is stopped dead in its tracks...

Black comedy, indeed...

Also a problem is the characterization of Freeman's sidekick, essayed by Mr. Rock. The professional comedian is the least funny (and most dispensable) of the comedy's quartet. If his reason for being there is meant to soften Freeman's character, it doesn't work. Freeman is made more despicable due to his connection with Rock's completely unlikable character. Perhaps the goal was to pair up the accomplished actor with the abrasive comedian. Actors and comics are not always interchangeable. Rock is unable to nail it down. There is promise in Rock's performance, though. He can also look to Kinnear for inspiration; a failed reporter then funny talk show host, Kinnear should have a shelf of "Supporting Actor" awards.

******* Nurse Betty (5/11/00) Neil LaBute ~ Renee Zellweger, Morgan Freeman, Greg Kinnear, Chris Rock

Nurse Betty is really an interesting movie. I guess we all know someone who is so convinced that the characters in a soap opera are real, that you can't explain them with any means that these are just actors and not real persons.

'Nurse Betty' isn't a nurse at all. In real life she is an ordinary housewife who works at a diner. To escape from her awful husband and the problems in her miserable life, she has become a very dedicated fan of a soap opera. After she witnessed her husband being murdered, she goes into some kind of a shock and she loses all grip on reality. She thinks she's in love with one of the characters from the soap opera, a doctor, and decides that she'll visit him and start a family with him. The hit men however think that she knows too much and go after her to kill her.

As I already said, the subject is quite recognizable (if you leave the professional hit men and the murder out of it) and the movie was funny. The story was well directed and the actors did a fine job. It had everything I always want to see when watching a comedy. I give it a 7.5/10.

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

As Betty Sizemore (Renee Zellweger) secretly watches her tyrannical husband Del (Aaron Eckhart) being murdered by the vengeful hitmen Charlie and Wesley (Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock), her bruised sense of reality becomes totally immersed in the fantasy world of her favorite soap opera. In a state of complete denial and delusion, Betty escapes both physically and mentally from her unsatisfied, small town life to search for "Dr. David Ravell" (Greg Kinnear), the handsome and loving hero of "A Reason to Love", a soap opera set in a hospital and produced in Los Angeles. Immune to reality, Betty arrives in L.A. and becomes "Nurse Betty" as she tries to belong in the hospital world of her dream lover. Meanwhile, the angered Charlie and Wesley track Betty down, convinced she is a dangerous witness who also knows about their compromising dealings with Del.

Nurse Betty creates comedy and suspense by contrasting its main character's extreme innocence and optimism with the evident hypocrisy and violence that surround her. By clearly defining the protagonist's difficult life, Nurse Betty justifies its character's tendency to turn away from reality. Thus, while offering a comment about the popularity of the soap opera within the film, Nurse Betty also makes a comment regarding the widespread addiction to television and its celebrities. In addition, Nurse Betty benefits from the effective manipulation of its protagonist's mental state, particularly in those scenes where she cannot distinguish between "Dr. David Ravell", the character, and George McCord (Greg Kinnear), the actor who plays him. Betty's incapacity to recognize George as an actor leads to funny misunderstandings, which stress the magnitude of her delusional state. However, in spite of these successes, Nurse Betty suffers from the troubling characterizations through which the narration evolves. For example, while Charlie and Wesley are consistently portrayed as a comical pair, the brutality of their actions undermines any sense of appreciation or acceptance the viewer might have initially experienced. Similarly, although the initial scenes establish Del as a detestable man, the humiliation and violence he experiences with his murderers surpass all the humiliation and violence he caused his wife Betty.

Finally, toward the end of the film, Charlie undergoes awkward transformations as he develops an obsession for Betty; an obsession which results in noble feelings of love, and which ultimately destroys him. Consequently, since the characters' roles as victims lack consistency, the story's victimization processes seem random and unsubstantial. All in all, Nurse Betty's indeterminacy --rather than creating suspense-- weakens its characters and pollutes its plot.