Nurse
Betty
(2000)
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 Hour and 50 Minutes
Reviewer: Dale
Grade: A+Finally this year we are given a movie that has the bold sensibilities and inventiveness that marked so many of last year's films. Although this movie is not edited in reverse order and it does not have any especially clever camera tricks, it still stands as a film that could hardly be described as conventional.
The movie revolves around Renee Zellweger who plays a waitress named Betty. Betty is pretty ordinary in many ways. She works at a diner, she is nice to people and they respond to her niceness by being nice to her in return, and she lives for her soap opera: a melodramatic piece of hospital-oriented fluff named "A Reason to Love".
Actually, not everyone is nice to Betty. Her louse of a husband, Del (played with oily gusto by Aaron Eckhart, as loutish here as he was nice in "Erin Brockovich"). Del cheats on her, ignores her, and berates her. But she still loves him. Then one day Del screws up a deal with a couple of killers (played by the dynamic duo of Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock) and ends up scalped and dead. Betty witnesses this harrowing scene and, understandably, loses touch with the world around her. Instead, she becomes convinced that she is part of her favorite soap opera and goes to Los Angeles to be with the man she is convinced is her ex-fiancee: the star of the show (Greg Kinnear).
Soon, the hit men realize that Betty is the only witness to their homicide and they cross the country on a quest to track her down. As their quest continues, the older man (Freeman) finds himself compulsively mesmerized by a picture of Betty. He speaks about her for hours on end, even though he has only met her once.
This film is totally unlike anything I have ever seen before. That is the highest compliment I can pay a movie. It is delightful, haunting, moving, often very funny, and sometimes intense. It provides a world that has an undercurrent of magic to it, yet also has a disturbing edge behind it. I never knew that those two things could co-exist in a movie, but here they seem like the most natural thing in the world. This world is strange and unpredictable, and a lot more realistic than most movie we get spoon-fed nowadays. It shows the dreams and longings of average people. It speaks to our desires and hidden eccentricities. And it moves at a wonderful pace.
It also features two of the best (if not the two best) performances of the year. As Betty, Rene Zellweger shines. She is positively incandescent in this movie. She is a joy to watch and her performance is a complex and beautiful balancing act. It is easy to see how a lifelong criminal could be so bewitched after a single meeting with her. If she doesn't get nominated for this performance it is a crime. She makes all of her character's loopy little quirks seem like the most normal things in the world. And Freeman is positively brilliant here. He commands your attention every step of the way. It's hard to picture a hired killer being the conscience of the entire movie, but Morgan manages it brilliantly. I have always wondered why so many people went on and on about how great Morgan Freeman is. But then one day I sat down and thought about all the movies he has been in, all the roles he has aced so effortlessly, and I realized what all the fuss is about. This film is no exception. He is our most dignified and graceful African-American actor. In fact, in his regality and poise, he seems almost British.
This is a smart, funny and magical movie. It has more wonderful moments than I can list here, but I will let you in on a couple of highlights. The scene where Morgan Freeman is by the Grand Canyon is hilarious and poignant. The moment between Betty and a woman bartender about Europe (THE Europe) is beautifully done. And the introduction of Aaron Eckhart's character is a gut buster. And the ending of this movie is unbelievably refreshing.
See it. You can't go wrong.