Starring Renee Zellweger, Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock, Greg Kinnear, Aaron Eckhart,
Crispin Glover, Taylor-Vince Pruitt, Tia Texada, Alison Janney, Sheila Kelley.
Directed by Neil LaBute.
Betty (Zellweger)works as a waitress in a diner in small-town Kansas. Betty religiously
watches the soap opera A Reason To Live and has an obsessive crush on the
lead doctor Dr. David Ravell (Kinnear). Her boorish and redneck husband Del (Eckhart)
sells cars and has big ambitions. Those ambitions don't include Betty, but do
include his secretary (Kelley), which he creates excuses to see. But his other
ambitions have landed him in trouble - two hitmen (Freeman and Rock) arrive in
town sent by the men he stole some "product" from.
Unfortunately, Betty witnesses the brutal killing while watching her soap, and
falls into a fantasy world to forget the horror. She believes she's left Del to
reunite with ex-fiance Dr. David Ravell, and takes off for L.A. County General to
find him. The hitmen find out she was a witness to the murder, and set out to
find her, travelling across America. Betty, with the help of her new roommate
Rosa (Texada), meets actor George (who plays Ravell) and his producer (Janney).
They think Betty is just staying in character when she always calls him Ravell -
for three straight days. Ravell falls for Betty and thinks she's so good an actress
that she should appear on the soap. But things start to get messy.
I loved LaBute's two excellent black comedies In The Company Of Men and
Your Friends and Neighbours and I had high hopes for Nurse Betty.
And there is a lot to like about it, besides a great cast and some pretty good
dialogue. The premise of a person
addicted to soap operas falling into a fantastic world all in her mind is interesting.
But the problem is that Nurse Betty can't decide whether it wants to be a
light romantic comedy or an insightful black comedy analysing people's desire to
escape their own lives and adopt a soap opera instead. As a result, it does not
successfully accomplish either. And the cast and producer of the soap buying Betty's
delusion as a good acting job quickly becomes unbelievable. But much of the road
trip is a lot of fun, especially at the end of the film and the surprise it reveals.
Nurse Betty boasts an excellent cast, with Morgan Freeman standing out as
as the principled hitman who believes in his work, and carrying it out in a
professional manner. Rock shows flashes of his foul-mouthed brilliance as his
cocky sidekick. His best line, which made me think of George W., is when Freeman
says "I'm stuck in pergatory", and Rock says "Worse. You're in Texas." Zellweger
is perfectly airy as the highly deluded soap addict, and Janney is great in support.
Nurse Betty is not exactly just what the doctor ordered, but it does provide
a decent journey along the way.
If you would like to respond, please click the
E-Mail
Press Here To Go To The Review List Page
|