Nurse Betty
dir. Neil LaBute
Propaganda Films

Those familiar with Neil LaBute's previous films will be shocked when they see Nurse Betty, probably even more so than the first time they saw In the Company of Men or Your Friends and Neighbors. All of LaBute's films delve deep into the human soul; his earlier two reported dark and disturbing findings. Nurse Betty actually has something good to say.

On the surface, Nurse Betty is a pretty conventional film, certainly more so than anything else LaBute has ever done (in all fairness, Nurse Betty is the first film he has directed but not written). It follows the adventures of soap-opera fan and waitress Betty Sizemore (Renée Zellweger), who, after witnessing her husband's brutal murder, goes into a sort of shock and decides the only person who can help her is superstar heart surgeon David Ravell, a character on one of her favorite shows. (Ravell is played by George McCord, played by Greg Kinnear.) Betty, no longer able to distinguish fact from fiction, runs away to Los Angeles to find him, pursued by her husband's killers (Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock, a stellar comedic pairing that should be repeated).

Sounds straightforward, but the film is not the light-hearted comedy of errors you might expect it to be from the trailers. Instead, the film is mostly about the ways in which people create alternate personas and fantasies as defense mechanisms. LaBute takes us inside each of the main characters, and asks us to see them not just as mentally unstable, or ruthless, or shallow, but as complex entities.

Morgan Freeman's soon-to-retire hitman, for example, truly believes that he is an honorable person, is just like any other working stiff and only hurts people when they deserve it. Likewise, Kinnear is so driven to become the Big Man on the Set that he allows himself to be taken in by Betty's fantasy, telling himself that she is a great Method actress and not just some deranged fan. LaBute asks us to look at Betty's mental instability in this light; she may appear further off kilter than the rest, but in the end, they are all playing the same game.

Some might accuse LaBute of selling out with this film, but he should really be praised for stepping up. He has taken what in other hands could have been a lackluster script and given it real depth; he has taken a cast heavy with stars and not only forced them to conform to his vision, but to excel within it. Every one of the performances, from Aaron Eckhart's mullet-headed Del (Betty's husband) to Kinnear's wonderfully shallow David Ravell/George McCord, makes the film worth seeing.

Nurse Betty is what Fargo would have been had it had a conscience. Both are dark comedies; both are replete with violence and depravity. But while Fargo ends as one big, bloody joke, Nurse Betty ends in a moral. Betty may not be the most sane person in the film, but she is the most honest and kind, and this is why she comes out on top.

People who liked In the Company of Men and Your Friends and Neighbors for their no-holds-barred approach to the ordinary evils of human relationships will be disappointed by Nurse Betty. But those who appreciated LaBute's earlier works for other reasons — for their pinpoint dialogue, for their well-defined characters or for their complex and subtle moralities — will find Nurse Betty irresistible.

— Clay Risen (clay@flakmag.com)