Nursing a Passion (Nurse Betty (DVD))

Member Name: Ophelia

Product:	Nurse Betty (DVD)
Date:	12/09/03 (132 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Black humour, good acting

Disadvantages: None

For months I had been put off this film by the cover of the video in the rental shop. A pretty grinning nurse beamed at me from the centre, flanked on either side by two men. It looked puerile, it looked zany and it looked madcap. I don?t like puerile, I don?t like zany and I don?t like madcap!

On my last visit to the rental shop I had the sense to examine the video more closely. Well my flabber was ghasted as I realised that the nurse was Rene Zellwegger and the two accompanying males were Morgan Freeman (for whom I have a great deal of respect) and Chris Rock. Upon reading the synopsis I was promised black humour (just my sort of thing) and a story that was at one minute hilarious and at the next chilling. I couldn?t resist!

Zellwegger plays a bored suburban housewife who is married to a used car salesman who takes her for granted and plays away from home. All Zellwegger has in her life is her passion for a television soap opera and, in particular, one of the actors who plays a doctor.

Her husband has been dabbling in the drug trade and finds himself in trouble when Freeman and Rock appear at the house to question him as to the whereabouts of their goods that he has taken. Unaware that Zellwegger is in the next room, they murder him and she is a witness.

The murder obviously shakes her deeply and she is slightly psychologically disturbed, leaving her now dead husband a ?Dear John? letter and heading for Los Angeles to seek the television doctor. She has immersed herself in a well-knit fantasy in which the character is real and she is his ex-fiancée who is determined to be reunited with him.

Meanwhile Freeman and Rock realise that she must have witnessed the attack and set out to find her whereabouts. The local police are also on her tail, thinking that she may have had a hand in the murder. Meanwhile she gets herself a job as a nurse at a Los Angeles hospital and starts her quest to find love. Chaos and hi
larity result.

The film is undoubtedly funny. It is not a constant ride of belly laughs but there are frequent comic moments. As these moments are contained within a larger picture of killings and retribution, the comedy is contrasted by the darkness and results in an intensifying of amusement.

Little touches seem to result in greater hilarity. When Zellwegger?s husband is killed he has just made a tasteless and racist joke about American Indians and so Rock scalps him. Freeman is furious and states ?It almost made me puke. If he had told a story about Babe Ruth, would you have hit him with a baseball bat??

While watching these events unfold from the next-door room Zellwegger is watching a videotape of her favourite hospital soap opera. She seems horrified by what she sees and yet as the murderers leave she rewinds the tape so that she can watch the scenes of her soap that she has missed!

Freeman and Rock partner each other perfectly. Freeman is mature and dignified and serious, while Rock is loud-mouthed, young and impetuous. This combination as well as working well on screen also provides opportunities for more comedy. Such as when the two are posing as policemen and interviewing Zellwegger?s grandparents in order to discover her location. The old couple make a comment about how they can?t understand how anyone could be sick enough to kill in such a manner and Rock begins to get irate and starts mouthing off asking what is so bad about killing. Freeman is forced to intervene, quickly joking that Rock is a young and keen rookie cop and feels as though he wants to kill all the criminals himself!

Zellwegger also does well in her portrayal of the unhinged housewife. She is thoroughly convinced of the reality of her fantasy identity and perfects the art of acting dumb and confused when those she meets begin to realise that this ex-fiancee with whom she is in love is a fictional character. When she actually comes
face to face with the actor himself and members of the soap?s production company the situation becomes more complex as, instead of recognising her for the cranky fruitcase that she is, think that she is a budding actress doing an impromptu audition for the show!

The film easily holds the attention from beginning to end. The situations in which the characters find themselves are sometimes horrific, sometimes frightening and yet just as we feel tension and revulsion heightening, the atmosphere is released with a skilful injection of humour.

I had not heard of this film and yet it was an extremely worthwhile piece of entertainment, which cannot fail to fascinate and amuse with good casting, great script and fantastic acting. Well worth a try.

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