"Nurse Betty" is not what you think it is. I don't really care what you might believe this film is about -- you are utterly and totally wrong.
Most of you probably think that "Nurse Betty" is a comedy because that is what it has been advertised as in theaters and on television. Now you might think that since "Nurse Betty" isn't a comedy that your feeling that it's actually a mis-categorized action film is correct. You have not been paying attention. You are wrong. Anyone else out there who hasn't seen the movie and thinks he knows what it's about, you are also wrong.
Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I suppose I'll have to explain to you what exactly "Nurse Betty" is and reveal the horrifying beauty of the film to you. "Nurse Betty" stars Rene Zellweger, Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock and Greg Kinnear. This is good except for the problem of who gets how much billing. If you look at the movie posters, you will find that instead of one or two names prominently displayed, the image is all but hidden behind the plethora of star names associated with the piece.
Zellweger uses this film to maintain her iron grip on the heart of America. She is cute and nice and does a fine job making you feel good about the fact that you paid seven and a half dollars to see her prance around on the screen and go through her paces.
Her character is Betty Sizemore, a housewife from a small town in Kansas who has never left the state before and is obsessed with a soap opera. Betty's husband is a sleazeball who runs a car dealership and is aardvarking his secretary. You hate Betty's husband. This hatred could stem from any number of reasons that pop up during the course of the movie, but the best reason to hate Mr. Sizemore is that he is married to Rene Zellweger like you want to be but he's doing some woman at the office. What the hell?
Greg Kinnear is the star of Betty's favorite soap. Kinnear plays arrogant in this movie as opposed to the couple of movies he's been in where he plays his other role of vaguely-confused and-vulnerable Greg Kinnear. In any case, Kinnear does a fine job being arrogant just as he has done in so many other films.
There is, however, some truly fantastic and new acting in this movie. Both Chris Rock and Morgan Freeman turn in amazing and innovative performances. Morgan Freeman loses his stone-cold exterior to portray an aging man who seems to be going slightly insane. (But whimsically insane, not scary insane.) Freeman is happily paired with Chris Rock who also steps entirely out of his usual comedic routine to play Wesley, an almost entirely serious character. Rock performs so well that not only does the audience take him seriously, but they really get to know who the character is.
Now, those are the basics. The problem with "Nurse Betty" is that it is a movie almost impossible to categorize. It is an action-crime drama. It is a comedy. It is a coming-of-age film. It is a romance. It takes just about every genre and convention of Hollywood and mixes them all together in a big black kettle so that none of them is recognizable and the result is truly original and fantastic. Many parts of the film are funny, but you aren't entirely sure why you're laughing at those moments -- or even if it's appropriate to be laughing -- and then, immediately after you laugh, something utterly horrible happens.
The writers and directors of "Nurse Betty" let go of the reins so that the movie takes on a life of its own and does whatever it feels while retaining just enough control to make sure that it's all artistic and worth watching. And ultimately, that's all I can really tell you about this movie without giving away something and reducing your enjoyment of the product. So go watch "Nurse Betty." If you're too cheap to shell out seven bucks, there are matinees, and you can always wait for the video -- just see it. I don't know if it will, but I certainly hope that "Nurse Betty" will one day take a place in the annals of American film as a true classic.
