When small town waitress Betty Sizemore (Renée Zellweger) accidentally witnesses the grisly murder of her underhanded car-dealing husband (Aaron Eckhart), she copes with the trauma by retreating into a dream-like state. Not only is Betty completely in denial about her husband's death, but she now believes she is the one-time love of her favorite soap opera character, Dr. David Ravell (Greg Kinnear). Leaving her Kansas home in one of her husband's used cars to "reunite" with the doctor, Betty unwittingly carries drugs that the killers (Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock) are after. As Betty arrives in Los Angeles to seek out the fictional Dr. Ravell, the hit men aren't far behind.
Director Neil LaBute's third feature combines elements of thrillers, romance flicks, and road movies into a strangely unique film. Unlike the emotional brutality present in LaBute's previous films (IN THE COMPANY OF MEN and YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS), the violence in NURSE BETTY is physical and brief, quickly giving way to a more light-hearted comedic tone. The title character, Renée Zellweger, is sweet, determined, and utterly charming, while Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock are perfectly suited for their off-beat hit men roles. With its clever script and sure-handed direction, NURSE BETTY makes for a winning oddball comedy about the fine line between fantasy and reality.
(1 vote)
2.
What happens when a person decides that life is merely a state of mind? If you're Betty, a small- town waitress and soap opera fan from Fair Oaks, Kansas, you refuse to believe that you can't be with the love of your life just because he doesn't really exist. After all, life is no excuse for not living. The popular TV daytime drama "A Reason to Love" has an especially devoted viewer in Betty, a young woman with a good heart and a bad marriage. Her no-good car salesman husband, Del (Aaron Eckhart), treats her like dirt and forgets her birthday; as Betty quietly celebrates alone, she can barely remember her deferred dreams of becoming a real nurse.
At home one night watching a videotape of that day's episode, Betty watches raptly as her favorite character, Dr. David Ravell, stares up at the moon and says, "I know there's someone special out there for me." Betty feels as if he's speaking directly to her. That is, until her husband comes home with two men to negotiate a shady business deal. As she tries to watch her show, Betty becomes an accidental witness to this deal going fatally awry: Del offends courtly hit man Charlie (Morgan Freeman) and his excitable protege Wesley (Chris Rock), and is violently dispatched. Betty, traumatized by this savage event, enters into a fugue state that allows , even encourages, — her to keep functioning... in a kind of alternate reality. Betty Sizemore becomes "Nurse Betty," who is set on returning to the love of her life, Dr. Ravell, whom she jilted at the altar six years ago.
Betty promptly leaves Kansas in a "borrowed" 1997 Buick LeSabre, which is precisely what her late husband's killers are looking for. They, in turn, set off after Betty, but she has a head start and is intensely focused on her mission. Miles behind their quarry, the hit men formulate wildly differing assessments of their prey: Wesley sees her as a coldly calculating criminal, while Charlie begins to obsess about her. Back in Fair Oaks, Sheriff Ballard (Pruitt Taylor Vince) and local reporter Roy Ostrey (Crispin Glover) are investigating Del's murder and Betty's sudden, unexplained disappearance.
(1 vote)
3.
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
(1 vote)
4.
Betty never misses an episode of her favorite soap opera, A Reason To Love. After a mind-altering run-in with two hit-men while watching an episode, Betty transforms into Nurse Betty and embarks on a mission to find her true love, Dr. David Ravell
Follow Betty on a wild and hysterical cross-country trek in search of the man of her dreams. But, can Betty find him before the hit-men find her?
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