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Nurse Betty
Nurse Betty

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cast list

Morgan Freeman
Chris Rock
Greg Kinnear

directed by
Neil LaBute

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Some directors should stay away from whimsical comedies, or at least attempting to make them. Case in point: Nurse Betty, the new film from writer/director Neil LaBute, whose last two comedies, In The Company Of Men and Your Friends & Neighbours, were hardly of the "whimsical" type. Some solid acting from leads Renee Zellweger, Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock helps the movie, but not enough to fully recommend it.

Zellweger plays a midwestern housewife named Betty Sizemore who lives for a soap opera called A Reason To Love. She knows everything there is to know about it. Betty lives for the show, and judging from her crappy marriage to a sleazy, cheating auto dealer, it is easy to see why: it serves as a daily escape into a fantasy world she would love to live in.

When she witnesses the brutal slaying of her husband by two hit men,Charlie (Freeman) and Wesley (Rock), Betty is traumatized to the point that she actually believes she is Nurse Betty, the ex-fiancée of Dr. David Ravell, a character on A Reason To Love. She heads off to Los Angeles, unknowingly carrying along with her the drugs her husband tried to rip off, to reunite with her long-lost love.

Nurse Betty is a film that consists of two halves: a Wizard Of Oz –esque fantasy comedy that strains for a whimsical aura and the other half a violent Quentin Tarantino crime story that even that missing-in-action director would shudder at. The screenplay by John C. Richards and James Flamberg had the potential to be an original work, but it doesn't pan out. A person suffering from trauma is nothing to laugh at, and having a labored, weak screenplay only makes the situation worse.

Considering his first two films, In The Company Of Men and Your Friends and Neighbors, Neil LaBute is not the first person one would chose to make a comedy that shows any type of lightheartedness. It would be like getting James Ivory to tackle the sequel to Seven or getting Spike Lee to direct an episode of Friends: it is just not in their directorial blood. The violent half of the film, the one that is actually of some interest, seems to be where LaBute is most comfortable. But even there, LaBute is not working at the same level he did on his previous efforts. Nothing is sadder than watching a talented director go on autopilot in order to get a box-office hit under his belt, and that is the case here.

Still, the film is not a total loss. Despite a story that is as confused as its lead character, the cast makes Betty worthy of a look (at least on video). Zellweger, following up her underwritten role in this past summer's Me, Myself & Irene, captures the sweet innocence and unlimited charm needed for the viewer to connect with her character. I just wish she had a better script to work with.

Freeman and Rock, however, are the true stars of the movie. There are very few actors that can carry off the world-weary professional as convincing as Morgan Freeman. With his weathered look and sad eyes that seem to say that he has seen and is pretty tired of it all, Freeman gives his cold killer a heart and core that the film so desperately needed (too bad he didn't write and direct it). Rock continues to show that he is one very talented person who seems to be maturing as an actor with each consecutive film role. He gives Wesley an intensity that would make even the toughest hit man keep a few feet away from him. These two talented actors work wonderfully off each other, so much so that I wish that they could have been in a separate film altogether (Come to think of it, I was convinced that I was watching another movie altogether when their characters came on.).

As for the other cast members, Greg Kinnear comes off well enough as actor George McCord, the actor who plays Dr. Ravell, the object of Betty's affections, but once again Kinnear doesn't display enough dimension as an actor to be completely successful. He has the temperament of an actor down just fine, but not too much beyond that. Crispin Glover, as a reporter, Pruitt Taylor Vince as a sheriff and Tia Texada as Betty's L.A. roommate Rosa are serviceable if hardly memorable, although Aaron Eckhart is first-rate as Betty's jerk of a husband, Del.

Nurse Betty is a film much like its lead character: traumatized. If there was a better, more streamlined (or focused) screenplay to work off of, maybe this might have worked. Neil LaBute is a talented director; unfortunately, he chose the wrong film to make his leap into mainstream cinema with.

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