I recently rented Nurse Betty on DVD. This is one of the most original movies I have ever seen. It contains some of the funniest scenes I have seen in a long time, but it also contains a few scenes that are violent. So much so that those few scenes will turn some people off of the movie entirely. It is a bit strange to see a movie with so many funny things that also has graphic violence like this movie. If you can handle seeing some shocking scenes of violence thrown in among the funny moments, then this movie is worth seeing. If you don't like violence in movies or are very squeamish, this probably isn't the movie for you. Unless you watch it with your hand ready to cover your eyes.

Betty (Renee Zellweger) lives in a small town in Kansas where she works as a waitress. She is married to a creep named Del (Aaron Eckhart). He owns a used car lot and is mixed up in something illegal. The only bright spot in Betty's days is the soap opera she loves ,A Reason to Live. She is addicted to the show. You seen proof of her addiction when she is able to wait on her customers, without spilling or dropping anything, without once taking her eyes off the tv. Betty loves one of the characters of the soap, Dr. Revell. He is played by an actor named George McCord (Greg Kinnear).

PLOT

The movie begins on Betty's birthday. Her co-workers have a little party for her and give her a cupcake and a life size cut out of Dr. Revell (be still my heart). Betty and her friend have plans to go out and celebrate her birthday. Betty wants to drive a car from Del's lot, a Buick LeSabre. He tells her she can take some other car. When she goes to get the car, Betty takes a LeSabre anyway. This becomes very important a little later in the movie.

Betty's friend has to cancel their plans for the evening. So Betty spends her birthday at home, in the den watching taped episodes of A Reason to Live. Del has an important business meeting with Charlie (Morgan Freeman) and Wesley (Chris Rock). It turns out that they are hit men. Del has managed to tick off the wrong person. The meeting ends badly with an act of violence that Betty witnesses. The taped episode of A Reason to Live is playing in the background when Betty sees what happened. She is of course shocked by what she has seen and focuses in on the soap opera, rewinding and watching one part over and over. She completely blocks out what happened.

Betty creates her own little world in which she has left her creep of a husband to be with the man she was once engaged to. And just who is that man? Why no other than Dr. Revell. That's right, Betty now thinks she was once involved with him and now he needs her - there is some trouble brewing for Dr. Revell on the soap opera. After the police leave, Betty picks up her bags and heads to California and Dr. Revell. Betty is followed on her cross country trip by the local sheriff, a reporter who is also her friend, Charlie and Wesley. Charlie and Wesley find out later that Betty was in the house when her husband was killed. So now they are going after her - they have to tie up all the loose ends.

During her journey, Betty meets and interacts with different people. She is very friendly and everyone likes her. She tells her story about leaving her creep of a husband to go back to the wonderful man she was once engaged too. She even says she is a nurse. Once people find out the name of the man she is in love with and that he is actually a character on a soap opera, they then think she has lost her marbles. Throughout her trip, Betty remains convinced that she was engaged to Dr. Revell and that they will be together again. She stops everyday to watch A Reason to Live.

What will happen next? Will Betty find Dr. Revell and live happily ever after? Will someone shatter her illusions and cause her to flip out even more? Will Charlie and Wesley catch up with her? What happens to Betty once she reaches California? I'm not telling. To find out the answers to all these questions and more, turn in tomorrow to the next episode of A Reason to Live. Hehehe. Sorry bout that. I couldn't resist. Seriously, that is all I'm saying about the plot here, so you'll have to watch the movie to find out what happens.

CAST

This movie has a wonderful cast. From the actors playing the lead roles, to the ones playing the smaller supporting roles. The cast plays a unique group of characters, from hit men to actors on a soap opera.

Renee Zellweger gives one of the best performances of her career in this movie. Betty is a very complex character. You feel for her and what she is going through. Many of the people Betty encounters in the movie underestimate her and dismiss her as a typical blonde air head - especially after they find out she is in love with a character from a soap opera. They also think she is a bit crazy. After all no sane person would be in love with a soap opera character right? Betty is many things, trusting and naive to name a few, but she is not stupid.

Aaron Eckhart plays Betty's creep, slime ball husband, Del. I think I have seen in him another movie because he looks very familiar to me, but I can't think of what that movie might be. He gives a very good performance as Del. He is a louse of a husband, a total creep with nothing to like about him.

Morgan Freeman gives a brilliant performance as Charlie, one of the hit men. This movie proves that Morgan Freeman can do comedy as well as drama. Most of Freeman's scenes are with Chris Rock. Charlie and Wesley have a somewhat complicated relationship. They have clashes over different things throughout the movie. Charlie goes through his own obsession. He has some of the funniest scenes in the movie. My favorite happens when Charlie and Wesley are following Betty's trail. They are in some little town in Texas. Charlie loses it and has some kind of fit, yelling that he is in purgatory and it is Texas - I can't remember his exact words, but it is something like that - while he is jumping up and down. It was really funny to see Morgan Freeman have a fit.

Chris Rock gives a great performance as Wesley the other hit man. His character is impulsive at times. He doesn't always think things through before he acts. He is loud and outspoken, and he likes to use a certain obscenity a lot. If he thinks Charlie made a bad decision or is doing something stupid, he doesn't hesitate to speak up. Wesley doesn't like the fact that Charlie is in charge and making all the decisions.

Greg Kinnear plays the actor George McCord who plays Dr. Revell on A Reason to Live. Kinnear plays them completely differently. Dr. Revell is a kind, compassionate, likeable man. George seems to be a nice guy at first, but then he proves that he is a big jerk. When he is playing Dr. Revell, Kinnear goes into a bad over acting mode. It fits perfectly with the soap opera.

There are some other characters in the movie that are really good but I can't remember their names now. There are the people Betty meets on her way to California, the woman who becomes her roommate, the sheriff and reporter that follow her. There are the other actors from the soap opera. From what is shown of the soap opera, there are only six characters on it. Other than Dr. Revell, there is the kind older doctor, two nurses, another doctor who is jealous of Dr. Revell and wants him out of the hospital, and the other doctor's mother who is on the board of directors of the hospital. Most of the scenes with these characters are shown as episodes of the soap opera. In these scenes all the actors are in their bad over acting modes. That fits in with just how bad the soap is. There are a few scenes that take place on the set of the soap when they are filming. In these scenes, the actors are pretty good, acting normally. Then the minute they start to film the soap, they all go back into the over acting mode.

DVD Extras
This DVD contains several extras. It has episodes of A Reason to Live. These are all the scenes of the soap that showed up during the course of the movie. Each is just a few minutes long. The DVD also contains all of the tv ads and the trailers that played in movie theaters for this movie. I hadn't realized there were so many different ads for this movie before I rented the DVD. I think there was also a commentary by the directory but I can't remember for sure since I didn't listen to that if it was there.

There are several deleted scenes on the DVD. I can't remember how many deleted scenes there are now, but there are several. If you have not seen the movie before, wait until after you watch it to watch these scenes because a few show things that happen later in the movie.
WARNING
One of the deleted scenes is very graphic. It is either the next to last or last scene listed. I'm pretty sure it is the last one, but I can't remember for sure. It does have Wesley's name in it. It is actually a different version of a scene that is in the movie. You see everything you need to see in the version that is in the movie. If you are even the tiniest bit squeamish in any way, you do not want to watch this scene. Trust me on this. I was extremelly shocked when I saw this scene. It is very short, only about ten seconds long, but it is very graphic. If you decide to watch this scene anyway, well..you have been warned. Who ever decided to go with the other version of this scene made a good decision.

The few violent scenes will turn some people off. It is not for children of any ages. If you like movie that have dark moments mixed with the comedy, and can handle violence, then it is worth seeing.

Sorry this was so long. I didn't mean to ramble so much. This was a very complex movie and I wanted to do it justice.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age