Rating: 
Summary: "She's chasing a dream...they're chasing her."
Review: Betty Sizemore (Renee Zellweger) is a Kansas City waitress who dreams of becoming a nurse. The only thing standing in her way is her husband, your traditional snake of a car salesman. However, when Betty sees him brutally murdered by a couple of hit men, she goes into a fugue state. Oblivious to her husband's death and confused by the questions the police keep asking her, Betty decides the solution to all her problems is to head to Los Angels and be reunited with her former fiancée, Dr. David Ravell (Greg Kinnear). The only problem is that the totally delusional Betty no longer knows he is just her a character from her favorite soap opera, "A Reason to Love." Meanwhile the two odd couple hit-men, Charlie (Morgan Freeman) and Wesley (Chris Rock), try to track her down, not only because she say the murder but because there is something in the car she drove off in that they want. Unfortunately, Charlie becomes somewhat fixated on Betty, who will be his last target before retirement. This only infuriates his hotheaded younger partner Wesley. Betty arrives in L.A. looking for "Dr. Ravell" and enjoys a couple of lucky twists of fate. After saving the life of a young man by using a procedure she saw on television once, Betty ends up with a job in a hospital and a place to stay with Rosa, the man's sister. Rosa even helps Betty look for David, until she discovers the truth and decides to set Betty up for a disastrous meeting with the actor who plays him at a charity function. This encounter becomes the pivotal scene of the film providing its best moments as "David" is totally captivated by what he thinks is amazing improvisational method acting from Betty. The scene is wonderfully sustained and provides the best acting moments in the film for both Zellweger and Kinnear. Their surprising connection provides the magic that allows the story to proceed. Of course, Betty's bubble finally bursts in a scene that is, somewhat surprisingly, brutally realistic, just as all the plot lines get drawn together for the film's climax. We are pretty sure Betty's life is going to have a happy ending, but there are enough twists and turns here that we are not willing to predict exactly how things are going to turn out. This DVD includes the nine brief installments of the faux soap "A Reason to Love." One of the nice things about this DVD are the two director's commentary tracks, the first has LaBute with the cast, while the second features the director with the crew. However, this disc does not have any subtitles to turn on while you listen to the commentary. This is a movie where the performances overcome the limitations of the script. "Nurse Betty" is not a Black Comedy and trying to pigeon hole it into one category is a mistake since it incorporates elements from so many distinct types of films. The question is whether you like a little bit of whimsy in your movies.
Rating: 
Summary: Weird mix of comedy and violence.
Review: I was expecting a dark comedy (my favorite kind), but this movie didn't really fit the bill. In fact, the core story of Renee Zellweger's character going a little nuts after seeing her husband brutally killed and trying to join the world of her favorite soap opera which she suddenly thinks is real is actually pretty sweet. That's because of Renee's excellent performance. She brings such genuine empathy to the character that it's hard to find her character's predicament funny. Yes, it's amusing how she manages to blithely insinuate herself into the make-believe soap world without anyone figuring out how truly nuts she is, but thanks to Renee's performance, I was also rooting for her to be successful in her bizarre endeavor. As for the parallel storyline involving Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock, it had it's funny moments, but it was nowhere close to fully utlizing Rock's darkly comic talent. I felt like any number of actors could have played this role; I would have much preferred to see Rock make it his own. Freeman was wonderful, of course. Unfortunately, these two were involved in some incredibly violent scenes - much more gruesome than you would expect to see in a movie that bills itself as a comedy. All in all, I enjoyed the movie, but I can see why it wasn't more of a success despite some great performances. It was too schizophrenic to be either a successful comedy or a succesful action/adventure movie. Do check out the cast and director's discussion of the movie on the DVD . It was interesting to hear what they considered the movie to be about and the choices they made.
Rating:
Summary: A bit out there and kind of silly.
Review: Renee Zellweger plays a goody two shoes housewife and waitress who is obsessed with a soap opera. When she witnesses and unexpected and horrible tragedy, she becomes convinced that the soap opera is real, and travels the U.S. to meet the star of the show, whom she really thinks is what he is on the show. In some sort of psychotic fantasy, that even he doesn't pick up on, she is thrust into a relationship with him and, for a time, happy. But darkness is on the horizon, as the perpetrators of the crime she witnessed are hunting her down. Morgan Freeman does a great acting job and Chris Rock adds humor, but only a little of it. In the meantime we have the sheriff's department in Kansas hunting her down, thinking she is the perpetrator of the crime. It was just too "dreamy" to be real or even feel real, but not too bad to pass 90 minutes or so.
Rating:
Summary: QUIRKY, FUNNY, AND JUST SCREAMINGLY ORIGINAL..
Review: What a pleasant surprise of a movie. Difficult to think of a genre I'd label it into, it takes a little road-less-travelled of its own. Part drama, part comedy (and both Freeman and Chris Rock are hilarious in a not very intentionally funny way), and part suspense murder chase -- plus a subplot about psychologically dysfunctionally fantasy of Hollywood. I read other reviews here and the one reason some critics savage this movie is that it defies all the usual by-the-numbers stereotypes. Sure, the theme is somewhat doozy but the way it has been handled on film is immaculate -- the movie flows quickly and is edge-of-the-seat entertainment and almost all characters are very convincing -- from the quirky small-town Kansas sheriff to the protagonists Renee and Freeman. In fact, I particularly enjoyed the protagonists, their stories intertwine in an offbeat way. He fantasizes about her as she fantasizes about a soap star. They both set off in pursuit of their ideals with unpredictable results. Renee is sweet without being smarmy, there is a naivete to her in this which is not cloying. And Morgan has seen better days and is the victim of his own lifestyle which he would leave in a second if his fantasy were possible and a deep part of him knows it is not. The underlying almost parodic message is about how we get sidetracked in life when some thing becomes too painful through just plain circumstances or through poor decisions. Pay attention to the words spoken by Morgan Freeman's character in his last scene. Its fun to watch movies that take risks and this sly dig definitely does! What a fabulous feast of film.
Rating:
Summary: OVERLOOKED GEM
Review: A complete departure for director Neil LaBute, his third film and first "major" vehicle, it is an amazing piece which actually turns in the total opposite direction of his first films which were not hopeful or friendly to the more human and sympathetic aspects of people. Don't get me wrong... there are still ugly, criminal, and cruel people populating this film, but this time there is a balance... and the balance is struck beautifully. Renée Zellweger is her charming self, playing the plucky soap opera addicted Kansas waitress, Betty, who is married to a corrupt car salesman played brilliantly by Aaron Eckhart. Eckhart has shady business deals going (as well as adulterous affairs). Two hit men (Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock, who are both excellent) come to town to kill him and do so most gruesomely. However, they do not realise that Betty is home and witnesses the murder. (They have previously met Betty, though, because she was their waitress at the diner). Betty is watching a videotape of her favourite soap and its heartthrob doctor (played well by Greg Kinnear) when the murder takes place. As some sort of psychological defence mechanism Betty assumes a new personality and believes that she is a nurse and the fiancée of Kinnear's character. She assumes a false life as her own, gets in the car and drives to California to reclaim that life. Things go along swimmingly at first, and the people who meet her do not realise how seriously she takes this assumed life. Most think she is joking, others think she is an overly ambitious actress trying to work her way into the soap opera. She meets the writers and stars of the soap opera, and it is only when she is told that she is going to have a walk on bit part on the soap that she "snaps out" of this psychological trauma. The pivotal and almost frightening part of this film is when she is on the set of the show and suddenly comes to the realisation that she does not know where she is or how she got there. Meanwhile Freeman and Rock have been chasing Betty across the country because they have to kill her since she was a witness to the murder of her husband. As they travel Freeman falls in love with this image he has of Betty, and Rock has to convince him to get a hold of himself. The film does not end completely happily, but Betty does come out happily in the end. Zellweger shines in this film, and it is well worth seeing.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent performance piece but the film falls short
Review: Coming from director Neil Labute (In the Company of Men, and Your Friends and Neighbors) it should come as no surprise that this is by no means your basic comedy. It's a lighter version of Pulp Fiction with scenes of graphic violence and chatty hitman (played by Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock) mixed with amusing scenerios. Renne Zelleweger plays a soaps obsessed Texas waitress, who pursues her favorite televison character romantically, after being tramuatized by the death of her husband. The movie goes to great pains to make a point of what we make of celebrities in our own imagination. The fantasies we sometimes build around them. The movie is about escapism and the effects it has, but makes it's point clumsily. What keeps you watching is the wonderful characterizations by Morgan Freeman and Renne Zellweger. Renne Zellweger once again proves to be one of the most emotionally volitale actresses in Hollywood today, as she goes from confusion to anger to vulnerability on the turn of a dime. She's a remarkable actress in a somewhat unremarkable film.
Rating: 
Summary: He Ate Her Cupcake
Review: Neil Labute's Nurse Betty overtly and comically emphasizes the panoptical regime, the discriminatory male gaze, which is best described in John Berger's Ways of Seeing, "Men act and women appear."
Betty Sizemore (Renee Zellweger), disrespected as a waitress at her job and at home by her sleazy husband, finds recluse in what every housewife enjoys, soap operas. After witnessing her husband's grisly murder, she lives out the metaphor of panopticon; she loses control of her own actions and desires in order to please an audience, regardless of whether one exists or doesn't. She submits herself by becoming Nurse Betty and travels to Los Angeles to rekindle a never-existant love to her soap opera hero, Dr. David Ravelle (Greg Kinnear). The film further emphasizes Betty as the surveyed by following her with a host of male surveyors: a reporter, a sheriff, a television producer, and a pair of stalkers; each of whom see her as nothing more than part of their own job.
The film is sarcastic to its very core. The objectification of women and beautiful stereotypes is captured to draw attention to itself. Betty becomes an object when she loses her sanity and mentally becomes a soap opera character. The characters she encounters on her way fall into existing general stereotypes, which covers race, class, and gender. For example, Rosa and her mother appear as never-satisfied, moody Latinos. The transparent objectivity of characters invites the viewer to detach from the story in a Brechtian fashion, and dwell on the issue of viewing. One can critique how people view a film, but it is rare to openly critique how people view women.
Rating:
Summary: Cinema
Review: Nurse Betty (2000), directed by Neil LaBute, follows a story about a waitress named Betty, played by Renee Zellweger, whom has witnessed the murder of her cheating husband Del, played by Aaron Eckhart. Betty suffered from post-traumatic stress after witnessing the murder, and becomes convinced that she must rejoin her once fiancé Dr. David Ravell, played by Greg Kinnear, who is actually a fictional character from a soap opera. Upon her journey across country to find Dr. Ravell, Betty exhibits characteristics that are often used to objectify women. In the beginning of the film, Del mistreats Betty by cheating on her, and demands her to play the submissive housewife role. Betty abides Del and remains devoted to him until her traumatic experience of watching him scalped and murdered, when she then develops a new attachment to another masculine character, David. Betty's main determination throughout the film is simply to be the woman in David's life, and goes as far as leaving her entire life behind
to pursue her supposed old flame. The camera shots in Nurse Betty highlight my point stated above; about the shallow gender roles that are portrayed. Whenever Betty romantically gazes at Doctor David Ravell, whether on television or in person, the camera often does a close-up to her face to emphasize the influence the man has on the woman. All David has to do is stand there and Betty becomes captivated by his presence. This gives a sense of perceived control that the men have over women, which isn't rare in Hollywood film. Also, whenever David is framed by the camera, it is at a lower angle, suggesting the dominance and power that he possesses. Berger studied art's constant objectification of women; Nurse Betty only supports his point. The heroine in the movie, Betty, plays a submissive role to her fellow characters, and her character's identity is somewhat based on the men that are in her life. In the first half of the film, she simply played a wife. In the second half, she played a "lost lover" to a man she had to be reunited with. In conclusion, Nurse Betty is a Hollywood film that portrays the female protagonist in an objectified way. The film also reproduces the existing stereotype of women, and the role of a wife, by the role Betty plays in her relationships with the male characters.
Rating:
Summary: Final Germ 241
Review: This strange comedy features a mixture of fantasy and reality. Betty Sizemore, played by Renee Zellweger, becomes traumatized after seeing her husband brutally murdered. This triggers her to become caught up in the fantasy world of a soap opera. She mentally leaves reality for a fictional world created in her mind and truly believes that the character of Dr. David Ravell (Greg Kinnear), from the soap opera "A Reason to Love", exists. Her obsession with Dr. David Ravell turns into a quest that takes her to Hollywood where she encounters this fictional character whom she believes is her lover. Since men are surveyors of women, Betty felt the need to conform into society's depiction of a "perfect" woman for this encounter. Renee Zellweger's character represents a woman who makes the pursuit of a man her reason of existence. This movie like many others symbolizes the typical woman who is seen as needy and reliant upon a man. Betty Sizemore exemplifies this stereotypical female character. The other obvious stereotype that can be seen from the movie comes from the title Nurse Betty. It is not accidental that in the movie the doctor is played by a man and the nurse is a woman. This in itself is a microcosm of our society where many believe these careers are gender specific. This movie can be categorized as a dark comedy for the reason that it is a complete satire of the typical female stereotypes that exists in our culture today.
Rating: 
Summary: Critique it or Skip it!
Review: The movie "Nurse Betty" tells the story of a young woman so disenchanted with her life that after witnessing the violent death of her husband her mind take dissociative measurers and she thinks she is the ex-finance of a soap opera character. She leaves a dead husband, killed by two vigilantes, Charlie and Wesley, and her small town, and makes her way across country to Hollywood, all the time followed by the same two men who killed her husband. She meets the man who plays her soap opera sweetheart, Dr. David Ravell, and continues to believe that he is a character, not the actor, George McCord. It is not until she is offered a part on the set that she comes to realize that this is all acting. This is followed by the requisite shoot out, between her and the vigilantes who have stalked her across country, and eventually everything works out.
Although the movie is rife with social commentary, and the way they portray women is typical-Hollywood, what is most interesting is the relationship that one of the vigilantes, Charlie has with Betty. At some point in the chase he becomes delusional about a relationship with her, much as she her become delusional about having a relationship with Dr. David Ravell. It is interesting just as Betty sees Ravell as a way out of her life, Charlie sees Betty as a way out of his. This plays on a very old theme that can be seen time and time again both in culture itself and in cultural products of a black man wanting a white woman. There are no mistakes in film, Betty didn't just happen to be white, nor did Charlie just happen to be black. The director cast them this way. Just as Betty is pursuing an impossible dream to escape reality by falling in love with an imaginary character, Charlie is doing the same by imagining a relationship with Betty. It is one of the most blatant reinforcements of racial divides that Hollywood has come out with in awhile, but it is veiled just enough to make it possible to ignore.
Over this entire movie was trite, and negative to all minority groups portrayed in it. The Latina character was portrayed as something of a slut, the small-town folks were bumbling idiots, the one white woman from LA was a leech, the two vigilantes were thugs, and one was delusional, and Betty was seen as a small child who needed to be cared for. If you do watch this movie, watch it with your eyes open, and you'll see all the stereotypes that are thrown around staring back at you.
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