NURSE BETTY
Of course, for an actor to do really great work, he needs a
good script and good direction. Both elements are present here,
not to mention a very well-equipped supporting cast, including
Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock, and Greg Kinnear. Directed by Neil
LaBute, who won critical accolades for his edgy 1997 writing/directing
debut In The Company Of Men, Nurse Betty is itself
the freshman effort of writers John C. Richards and James Flamberg.
Their talents with plot and character mesh nicely with LaBute's
pacing and Zellweger's down-to-earth style to produce a truly
enjoyable result. Nurse Betty isn't always funny, nor is
it meant to be, but it holds some interesting perspectives on
human nature and interpersonal relationships.
Betty Sizemore (Zellweger) is not really a nurse. She's a waitress
in a Kansas roadhouse diner called the Tip-Top, whose life hasn't
turned out exactly like she planned. As one character puts it,
"Betty doesn't want more out of life, she just wants
something out of it." She does enjoy one little part
of her existence, though: she is addicted to a medical soap opera
called A Reason To Love. When she's watching her show,
she can forget the dull monotony of her depressing life and immerse
herself in the goings on of the show's L.A. hospital and especially
of her favorite character, Dr. David Ravell, who is played by
actor George McCord (Kinnear). And it is while she is watching
this story that her abusive, deadbeat, car salesman husband Dell
(Aaron Eckhart) is murdered in the next room by a couple of drug
runners who are looking for 10 kilos of cocaine that is hidden
in one of Dell's cars. Although Charlie (Freeman), the seasoned
professional, hadn't meant to kill Dell, his brash young protegé
Wesley (Rock) forced the issue.
Unnoticed by the criminals, Betty witnesses the murder but
her involvement in the TV show causes her to snap. She decides
to make her way to L.A. to look for Dr. Ravell, whom she thinks
is her former fiancé, and re-establish her relationship
with him. While Charlie and Wesley are searching the trunk of
every car in Dell's lot, Betty hits the road unaware that the
drugs are stashed in her own vehicle. Soon she is being pursued
not only by Charlie and Wesley, who think she intentionally took
the drugs, but by the local sheriff (Pruitt Taylor Vince) and
newspaper reporter (Crispin Glover), who wonder if she may have
committed the murder.
What I have mentioned is only the first act. The plot is so
fascinatingly complex that it's impossible to relate it all, but
Betty's experiences when she reaches L.A. are merely a sidebar
to the complex psychological issues revealed by the numerous characters
she encounters along the way. Although Zellweger's portrayal of
an individual losing her grip on reality is astoundingly convincing,
Freeman also becomes wrapped up in fantasies about his quarry,
whom he builds into a kind of criminal mastermind, looking forward
to their eventual meeting with growing anticipation. Moreover,
Kinnear's performance is also multi-faceted, his reaction to Betty's
adulation evolving as the extent of her delusion slowly becomes
clear.
Although Nurse Betty is a clever story on the surface, and would suffice as a movie based solely on that, its real charm lies in the depth of character revealed slowly for each of the people in the story, like the layers one discovers when peeling an onion, and its cynical take on TV soap operas and those who follow them. Relationships change as the characters discover more about each other, and our perceptions of these characters change, too. Even the relationship between the two criminals is not fully revealed until the final reel. And although it seems to be merely a backdrop element, the soap opera becomes the catalyst for every major event in the film. While Nurse Betty's ending is pat and oversimplified, most of what precedes it is thoroughly entertaining. ****½