Nurse Betty Review

by Tim Wick

I must admit with a great deal of embarrassment that I got hooked on a Soap Opera once. It was The Days of Our Lives and everyone in college watched it. My roommates at the time were as hooked as anyone and my only option was to be out of the room if I wanted to miss it. But the sinister writers of this soap pulled me in against my will. I found myself "mildly" interested in a single plot line, so I sort of paid attention when that plotline was being shown. Somehow, around the time the plotline I was interested in was almost finished, I found myself growing attatched to a DIFFERENT plotline. Of course all of this was on purpose and soon I was a Days zombie just like everyone on campus.

Well, it took several years of therapy, but I can now admit that I really don't give a rip about any of those characters anymore. Really. C'mon, I'm serious!

Anyway, my point is that when one watches Nurse Betty - a film about a housewife who takes her soaps just a bit too seriously - one should be aware that Betty is not too far afield of most Soap watchers.

Nurse Betty is a comedy, but it is not a Me, Myself and Irene comedy. The film is not trying to make you laugh out loud too often. Instead, you have a smile on your face a lot of the time and chuckle every now and again. Given the movie is dealing with serious topics like murder, drug deals, failed marriages and traumatic delusions, the tone seems very appropriate. Everyone in the movie is earnestly serious and the humor organically develops as a result, rather than being overlaid in an attempt to sell tickets.

I think this has to be a short review, but it is hard to talk about the film without giving away spoliers. Granted, it has been out for a few weeks, so most people know what it is about. For those that might now, however, I am reluctant to give away too much. Not that much of what I say will spoil the film, but I really think most people would benefit from watching this movie cold.

So let me just say this - any film that features Rene Zellweger and Morgan Freeman as co-leads will probably be good. At the very least, they will. Playing two characters whose lives slowly begin to parallel each other, both actors are terrific. It's a pity this is a fall release because both actors should easily be in Oscar contention, but it's likely their performances will fade as the awards season approaches.

Beyond great acting, the movie is powered by a script that won an award at the Cannes film festival this year. It should have. As challenging as it is, every character in the movie is given the chance to define themselves - even if only through a few lines. It is so easy for a scriptwriter to ignore all but the lead players in a film. Nurse Betty is filled with characters that may only be on the screen for three minutes and still manage to leave a lasting impression. I harp on script a lot, but it really does make or break most films for me.

If anything bothered me, it was the coloration on the print of the film I saw. I am hoping it was the projectionists fault and not the fault of the cinematographer. The colors were washed out in scenes where I couldn't imagine any artistic reason for such a look. If it was the cinematography, it didn't really work.

As a whole, the blockbuster season provided few really exciting films. 2000 in general has been dominated (in my view) by charming little films that manage to touch and move you in the way films like Gladiator and The Patriot simply can't. Movies like High Fidelity, Return To Me, Wonder Boys and Nurse Betty have shown that there are certainly a lot of good reasons to go to the theatre this year - most people are just buying tickets for the wrong films.

Nurse Betty

Four Beakers
(out of five)

Nurse Betty is filled with characters that may only be on the screen for three minutes and still manage to leave a lasting impression.