Nurse Betty

Starring: Renee Zellweger, Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock, Greg Kinnear, Aaron Eckhart, Crispin Glover, Tia Texada, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Allison Janney, Elizabeth Mitchell
Directed by: Neil LaBute
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Romance
2000

Times Seen:
Tim: 2

Summary: Betty (Renee Zellweger) witnesses a horrible event, which causes her to a slight mental breakdown, which causes her to believe she was previously engaged to her favorite soap opera star (Greg Kinnear). She sets out on the road to rekindle that romance.

Review:

Tim: Nurse Betty is a movie that I did not expect to like, but found myself enjoying it more than I thought. While the movie doesn't quite deliver, it gets awfully close. This is a decent comedy, but it shows glimmers that reveal it could have been something more. Still, with all the bad comedies that come out every year, it's a nice to see a decent one.

The basic premise has been done before, but it's still fun to watch. Our heroine believes she's engaged to her favorite soap star, and is determined to win him back. This immediately creates so many situations where hijinks can ensue, and we can sit back and laugh. The basic premise is fun, and I enjoyed that aspect of the film.

The movie is really helped by the cast. Renee Zellweger is quite good as Betty. She manages to bring warmth and realism to the role. Even though our main protagonist has suffered a mental breakdown, we're still firmly in her corner and root for her to succeed in her Quixotic quest. It's an achievement by Zellweger that we care so much for her character, even though she's not in the right frame of mind. I really liked Zellweger here.

The real gold of the film comes from Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock. These two make a great team, and it was lots of fun seeing them interacting together. They're hunting Betty across America, and brought a lot of the humor to the movie. They were interesting characters, and I enjoyed watching them. While Freeman's character takes a few odd turns (the Grand Canyon scene was a bit too weird for me), they were intriguing enough so that I always looked forward to their scenes. It never felt like an unnecessary departure from the main Betty storyline.

The other supporting characters are pretty good, too. Aaron Eckhart was a bit too over-the-top, but it was fun seeing him play such a slimy role. Greg Kinnear was good as the soap opera star, as he was at least believable as the good-looking actor who believes his own press. While his character never really wowed me, his performance was at least decent. I've always liked Kinnear, even though I don't always know why. It was good seeing Crispin Glover play a normal guy, and I loved seeing Elizabeth Mitchell in a small role.

The story definitely takes some odd twists and turns. Some of them are pleasant surprises, some of the surprises just don't work. I appreciate that the script was written to be different- to play a little with our expectations, and to turn them upside down. The movie doesn't have the courage to do anything especially revolutionary, but the small departures from the norm are appreciated. Part of the enjoyment from this film comes from watching it for the first time, having no idea where the story is going or how it will all end up. Once you know that, repeat viewings aren't quite as enjoyable.

While Nurse Betty definitely has a number of flaws (the conclusion, for example, has never really felt right to me), it's still a fairly decent comedy. I had a fun time watching it, and while it occasionally strays into the absurd, the humorous parts and the human parts connect more than many comedies. I can't say that I loved this movie, but it was better than I expected. It's not a particularly strong comedy, but it almost got there. That is better than many attempts.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



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