Cheap Nurse Betty (DVD) (Morgan Freeman, Renée Zellweger, Chris Rock) (Neil LaBute) Price

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Customer Reviews of Nurse Betty

It's stupid.

I had reservations before actually seeing the film. I'd read about it. Much was made of it's unique plot -- and being fond of Labute, I honestly wanted it to be cool -- but there was a persistant, nagging voice at the back of my head, saying: "It's a dumb idea. Sure, it's original ... I guess ... but it just won't work. It's silly."

How let down I was that Neil and the rest of the team couldn't prove that voice wrong!

The movie has its merits. For at least the first third of the movie, Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock are a genuine hoot, although the humor is dark, and sometimes subtle. Aaron Eckhart ... well ... I just like seeing him turn up in films in general, no matter how small the role. And Zellweger pulls off the naive charm of her character well.

But these things aside, it's more or less a big mess. First of all, the story is entirely unbelievable. Accidentally seeing her husband murdered (let's leave aside that the murder itself feels rather awkward in the context of the movie for now), Betty "snaps" and loses herself in her own internal fantasy world, which is constructed from her favorite soap opera, which happened to be on TV at the time.

Uh. Yeah. Let's just say this didn't quite "ring true" to me.

But it only gets worse. Betty "accidentally" succeeding in becoming a nurse? And then "accidentally" wooing David Ravell, her favorite soap star, by way of some wacky misunderstandings? Ack. This is the kind of story progression usually reserved for sitcoms. But what's even worse is that it's not very funny. It's just sort of ... odd ... and entirely unbelievable.

I sense that we, as an audience, are supposed to "let that go" or be liberal in "suspending reality," because we are supposed to be won over by Betty's innocent, unknowing, uncalculated sweetness, and the magical way it makes everything just sort of happen around her. But to me this just worsened the film's situation. Because now it not only resembled an unfunny sitcom, but a B-grade inspirational children's movie as well.

Betty isn't the only problem, though. Morgan Freeman, who starts strong, really loses his flare in the second half as he "falls" for Betty. It just doesn't make any sense in regards to his character, and the film doesn't bother to try to make this change of heart convincing. The rapport with Chris Rock -- which, again, started strong -- falters and loses punch, and by the final half-hour of the movie, it is very difficult to accept the pair as cold-blooded hit men, or ... as much of anything, really. They come off as wasted characters who gradually became obscure and uninteresting throughout the course of the scattershot script.

Then there is the climax, after Betty has "come to" (um ... ok) and has been located by the hitmen. It's supposed to be rousing and funny and touching all at once, putting all of the characters who have been on Betty's tail in one room together and having fun with that. But it isn't fun, mainly because none of these characters have been developed in a particularly believable way, and they consequently have no chemistry together.

And that's pretty much that. The only scene in the last two-thirds of the film that came anywhere close to having some real meat was the scene in which Greg Kinnear's character "disillusions" Betty ... it even smacked remotely of "Chad's" scene with Stacy Edwards at the climax of Labute's first movie, "In the Company of Men." But this is hardly enough to make up for the other 100+ minutes.

Can't recommend this one in good conscience, I'm afraid. Better luck next time, Neil.

He Ate Her Cupcake
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.

Cinema
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.