Nurse Betty
First, the Q & A:
Q. Where in blazes have you been?
A. Well, everywhere and nowhere - I went through a brief period where I found myself fighting with my own fiber and sinew for forward propulsion and support. Pictures were taken, radioactively speaking, and we found that nothing solid had been compromised, but I still had to rely on aluminum stilts for everyday locomotion. Everybody's doin' a brand new dance, now.
Q. I said, where have you been?
A. As you're well aware by now, I don't see every two-bit romantic comedy and third-rate hack and slash that comes down the pike, and within the constraints of schedule - being self-employed takes up all my time, you know - and paucity of worthy mainstream entertainment over the last couple of months, I went on a brief hiatus, a sabbatical of sorts, in search of new inspiration and a grounding, centering influence. Budzilla World Tour 2000.
Q. If you don't want to say where you've been, just say so.
A. Okay.
"Nurse Betty", with Renée Zellweger, Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock, Greg Kinnear and Crispin Glover. Written by John C. Richards, directed by Neil LaBute. MPAA rating R for pervasive language, sexuality, strong violence and close-ups of Morgan Freeman. Run time, about 110 minutes. Hey, if you want timely reviews, it'll cost more.
"Nurse Betty" is one of those rare moovies that combines a simple, if offbeat, story and a handful of well-developed characters by way of smooth, unobtrusive direction into something that is quite a bit more than the sum of its parts.
It's like this: In a small Kansas town, Betty Sizemore (Zellweger) is having a birthday. The gang down at the Tip-Top Diner where Betty works all chip in in and give her a little pile of money and a cupcake with a candle. She takes it all home and fixes dinner for her philandering, good-for-nothing used car dealer husband, Del, who eats, leaves, and orders her to "clean up this mess". Though Del may be a sweetheart of a guy and a credit to his gender, he's not a lot smarter than a mid-size sedan, and soon becomes entangled with Charly and Wesley, (Freeman and Rock) a couple of hit men from Kansas City, who are looking for a particular car and its mystery contents. Del is unaware that Betty, in an impromptu expression of marital frustration, has liberated the car in question from Del's lot, right under the nose of Del's dirty little secret consort/secretary.
Del's inability to provide the proper responses to very simple questions regarding the whereabouts of said motor vehicle prompt Charly and Wesley to bring Del's pathetic existence to a grisly end. This doesn't go unnoticed by Betty, who is in the next room, glued to the TV, watching time-shifted recordings of her fave soap. But instead of going federal at the sight of her husband's bloody corpse, she retreats into her own fantasy life, and finds a much prettier place than she had previously occupied. So she stays, and is transformed from Betty Sizemore, waitress, into Nurse Betty Sizemore, a character in her daytime drama.
Nurse Betty has a different outlook on life, decides to leave the already room temperature Del, and heads for California to look for her lost love, Dr. David Ravell (Kinnear). The fact that Ravell is only a character in a soap opera doesn't deter Betty from making the trek West, followed by the two bad guys, intent on eliminating Betty and regaining possession of the car.
"Nurse Betty" is at once sweet and bitter, funny and pathetic. Renée Zellweger has found a character in Betty that she can carry around with her, wear like a nurse's uniform. If she were more sophisticated, more polished, the entire illusion would simply collapse. As it is, she makes Betty seem disarmingly simple and genuine, even though Betty is just a costume, as it were.
Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock play off each other, and sometimes head off into places we'd rather they didn't, but their personalities seem oddly connected. I've never been a Chris Rock fan, and may never be, but "Nurse Betty" allows him to be vulgar and abrasive as a foil for Morgan Freeman's more mature and philosophical outlook.
"Nurse Betty" owes a lot to moovies like "Pulp Fiction" and "Fargo" and could, with a little better editing, stand on its own in that company. It's even slightly reminiscent of George C. Scott's delusional Sherlock Holmes in "They Might Be Giants". Aren't crazy people fun?
The language in "Nurse Betty" is harsh, almost shocking at times, but it keeps you from drifting off-message. Basically, this is a comedic drama, not a dramatic comedy. There is also plenty of gore to go around - in short, leave the kids at home. (Equal time is not appropriate here - the gore referred to is the blood and guts variety, not the petrified candidate from Tennessee.)
"Nurse Betty" takes advantage of several cleverly nested back stories, my favorite being the reaction of the cast of the soap opera to Betty's insistence on being in love with the TV doctor. In Hollywood, apparently, deep psychosis is indistinguishable from blind ambition.
A generally good cast, (not too sure about Crispin Glover as a small-town newspaper reporter, or as anything else, for that matter) and except for a few flat spots, a good overall effort by director Neil LaBute, late of "In The Company of Men" and "Your Friends and Neighbors". LaBute likes his characters expressed larger than life, and he brings every face in "Nurse Betty" up close for your scrutiny. Suddenly, even really bad people appear as people, and not just gun-toting bad guys. Morgan Freeman is excellent as the philosophical gunman in pursuit of his last prey.
I expected Nurse Betty" to be fluffier than it is, and though a bit harsh in places, I think "Nurse Betty" is worthy of a good look. Maybe we'll get a director's cut that cleans up a bit.
Like sands through the hourglass - so are the days of my three cows.
Q. Where in blazes have you been?
A. Well, everywhere and nowhere - I went through a brief period where I found myself fighting with my own fiber and sinew for forward propulsion and support. Pictures were taken, radioactively speaking, and we found that nothing solid had been compromised, but I still had to rely on aluminum stilts for everyday locomotion. Everybody's doin' a brand new dance, now.
Q. I said, where have you been?
A. As you're well aware by now, I don't see every two-bit romantic comedy and third-rate hack and slash that comes down the pike, and within the constraints of schedule - being self-employed takes up all my time, you know - and paucity of worthy mainstream entertainment over the last couple of months, I went on a brief hiatus, a sabbatical of sorts, in search of new inspiration and a grounding, centering influence. Budzilla World Tour 2000.
Q. If you don't want to say where you've been, just say so.
A. Okay.
"Nurse Betty", with Renée Zellweger, Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock, Greg Kinnear and Crispin Glover. Written by John C. Richards, directed by Neil LaBute. MPAA rating R for pervasive language, sexuality, strong violence and close-ups of Morgan Freeman. Run time, about 110 minutes. Hey, if you want timely reviews, it'll cost more.
"Nurse Betty" is one of those rare moovies that combines a simple, if offbeat, story and a handful of well-developed characters by way of smooth, unobtrusive direction into something that is quite a bit more than the sum of its parts.
It's like this: In a small Kansas town, Betty Sizemore (Zellweger) is having a birthday. The gang down at the Tip-Top Diner where Betty works all chip in in and give her a little pile of money and a cupcake with a candle. She takes it all home and fixes dinner for her philandering, good-for-nothing used car dealer husband, Del, who eats, leaves, and orders her to "clean up this mess". Though Del may be a sweetheart of a guy and a credit to his gender, he's not a lot smarter than a mid-size sedan, and soon becomes entangled with Charly and Wesley, (Freeman and Rock) a couple of hit men from Kansas City, who are looking for a particular car and its mystery contents. Del is unaware that Betty, in an impromptu expression of marital frustration, has liberated the car in question from Del's lot, right under the nose of Del's dirty little secret consort/secretary.
Del's inability to provide the proper responses to very simple questions regarding the whereabouts of said motor vehicle prompt Charly and Wesley to bring Del's pathetic existence to a grisly end. This doesn't go unnoticed by Betty, who is in the next room, glued to the TV, watching time-shifted recordings of her fave soap. But instead of going federal at the sight of her husband's bloody corpse, she retreats into her own fantasy life, and finds a much prettier place than she had previously occupied. So she stays, and is transformed from Betty Sizemore, waitress, into Nurse Betty Sizemore, a character in her daytime drama.
Nurse Betty has a different outlook on life, decides to leave the already room temperature Del, and heads for California to look for her lost love, Dr. David Ravell (Kinnear). The fact that Ravell is only a character in a soap opera doesn't deter Betty from making the trek West, followed by the two bad guys, intent on eliminating Betty and regaining possession of the car.
"Nurse Betty" is at once sweet and bitter, funny and pathetic. Renée Zellweger has found a character in Betty that she can carry around with her, wear like a nurse's uniform. If she were more sophisticated, more polished, the entire illusion would simply collapse. As it is, she makes Betty seem disarmingly simple and genuine, even though Betty is just a costume, as it were.
Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock play off each other, and sometimes head off into places we'd rather they didn't, but their personalities seem oddly connected. I've never been a Chris Rock fan, and may never be, but "Nurse Betty" allows him to be vulgar and abrasive as a foil for Morgan Freeman's more mature and philosophical outlook.
"Nurse Betty" owes a lot to moovies like "Pulp Fiction" and "Fargo" and could, with a little better editing, stand on its own in that company. It's even slightly reminiscent of George C. Scott's delusional Sherlock Holmes in "They Might Be Giants". Aren't crazy people fun?
The language in "Nurse Betty" is harsh, almost shocking at times, but it keeps you from drifting off-message. Basically, this is a comedic drama, not a dramatic comedy. There is also plenty of gore to go around - in short, leave the kids at home. (Equal time is not appropriate here - the gore referred to is the blood and guts variety, not the petrified candidate from Tennessee.)
"Nurse Betty" takes advantage of several cleverly nested back stories, my favorite being the reaction of the cast of the soap opera to Betty's insistence on being in love with the TV doctor. In Hollywood, apparently, deep psychosis is indistinguishable from blind ambition.
A generally good cast, (not too sure about Crispin Glover as a small-town newspaper reporter, or as anything else, for that matter) and except for a few flat spots, a good overall effort by director Neil LaBute, late of "In The Company of Men" and "Your Friends and Neighbors". LaBute likes his characters expressed larger than life, and he brings every face in "Nurse Betty" up close for your scrutiny. Suddenly, even really bad people appear as people, and not just gun-toting bad guys. Morgan Freeman is excellent as the philosophical gunman in pursuit of his last prey.
I expected Nurse Betty" to be fluffier than it is, and though a bit harsh in places, I think "Nurse Betty" is worthy of a good look. Maybe we'll get a director's cut that cleans up a bit.
Like sands through the hourglass - so are the days of my three cows.
