Interesteg What makes it different from others?
SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped
Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?
InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Paul J. Nemecek Nurse Betty is a film about a meek waitress and wife who is thrown into bizarre circumstances and responds in an equally bizarre fashion. Rene Zelwegger plays the waitress who is married to a domineering, boorish used-car salesman. Her husband is also up to his ears in illegal wheeling and dealing unbeknownst to his wife. Betty deals with the dreariness of her day-to-day life by losing herself in a soap opera, and by fantasizing about one of the characters in the soap (a debonair doctor played by Greg Kinnear). When something happens to her husband, Betty snaps and projects herself into her soap opera fantasy world. She leaves town and drives to Los Angeles looking for the object of her affections. The two criminals who had dealings with her husband pursue her to LA so that they can tidy up loose ends.In one sense, this film is a standard crime/suspense film. A deeper look reveals a slightly more complex story line about the increasingly thin line between fantasy and fiction on the one hand and the "real world." In this sense, Nurse Betty is a postmodern film with much in common with films like Fargo and Pulp Fiction. The rapid movement between tender moments, funny scenes, and gruesome scenes is standard fare in films with postmodern sensibilities, so much so that the device is already a bit of a cliché.Nurse Betty also has much in common with films like EDTV, the Truman Show, and Pleasantville. All of these films deal with the postmodern obsession with virtual reality and simulated reality. There are some interesting issues raised in the film and there are clever turns in the story line. The real strength of the film is the superior performance by Rene Zellwegger and the great ing performance by Morgan Freeman as the hitman with a heart of gold.The greatest weakness of the film is also in the acting. Chris Rock plays Morgan Freeman's partner and basically plays the same obnoxious character that he played in Lethal Weapon 4--a film that has earned a special place on the list of films I despise. This film has some merit, and could generate some interesting conversations about our media-obsessed society and how it connects with what Thoreau referred to as our "lives of quiet desperation." While I like the basic theme and was impressed by some of the performances, I did not find it as interesting as Pleasantville or as engaging as The Truman Show. When you add the gruesome violence and other gratuitous insertions in Nurse Betty, most viewers would probably have a better time with the video version of one of the films mentioned above.
dave-sturm There's some heavy-duty talent involved in this movie. Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock as a father-son hit team. Greg Kinnear as a soap opera star. Direction by Neil Labute. The brilliant script is by John C. Richards. Well, maybe not everyone if familiar with that guy. But his screenplay is what makes it all work.Renee Zwellweger is front and center. I'd love to say this was her breakout role, but she had been in "Jerry Maguire" four years earlier. Still, I think this movie proved she could carry a movie by herself without Tom Cruise co-starring. She does carry it.How do you classify this movie? Light-hearted romance. No. Black comedy? But it's sweet, kinda. Crime drama. Well, sorta. But really, none of the above. It's about a crazy lady who, without really realizing it, puts her faith in luck. And it pays off. Even if the main character is insanely deluded.Can this work? Zellweger sells it.
saintonge Renee Zellweger is Betty, a Kansas waitress who wants to be a nurse, who is infatuated with a soap opera actor (Greg Kinnear), and who is married to Del, a cheating, stupid male chauvinist who's trying to sell some stolen drugs. Unfortunately for him, he gets brutally, bloodily murdered instead, while Betty secretly watches. It leaves her unhinged, believing that Kinnear is really the character he plays, Dr. David Ravell, and that she is his RN ex-fiancée. She heads for LA to find her lost love, not knowing the stolen drugs are in her trunk. Pursuing her are Charlie and Wesley (Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock respectively), the hit men who inadvertently killed Del before they found out where the drugs were hidden. They pursue her across the country, while Charlie gradually falls in love with his image of her.And in LA, things get totally bizarre, as no one realizes that Betty is delusional. Alternately funny and touching, this movie is almost perfect. Stop reading commentaries and go see it.
Isaac5855 NURSE BETTY is a delicious black comedy that is an affectionate send-up of the film noir genre that takes some effective swipes at the television industry as well. Renee Zellweger stars as Betty, a sweet-natured waitress and housewife who is a devoted follower of a soap opera called "A Reason to Love." One evening, while watching her tape of today's episode, Betty witnesses the brutal murder of her slimy, drug-dealer husband (Aaron Eckhart)by a pair of ruthless hit men (Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock). This incident causes a microchip in Betty's mind to blow and she packs her bags and decides to drive to Los Angeles to find Dr. David Ravelle, her favorite character on the soap, with the hit men hot on her trail, who have to take out the only witness to their crime. This comedy makes all the right moves, thanks to a razor-sharp screenplay and wonderful performances from a perfect cast. Zellweger is absolutely enchanting as Betty, an endearing performance that earned her a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy. Freeman is charming as a surprisingly sensitive hit man and Rock, as always, steals every scene he is in as Freeman's explosive young partner. Greg Kinnear offers a charismatic turn as George McCord, the actor who plays Dr.David Ravelle and finds himself enamored with Betty. Allison Janney, Kathleen Whilhoite, and Crispin Glover offer effective as well in this delightful comedy that is warm, witty, smart, and heartbreaking. Don't miss this sleeper.