Nurse Betty

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

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?

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.

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