Nurse Betty (2000)

Director: Neil LaBute

Writers: John C. Richards, James Flamberg

Composer: Rolfe Kent

Starring: Morgan Freeman, Renee Zellweger, Chris Rock, Greg Kinnear, Aaron Eckhart, Tia Texada, Crispin Glover, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Allison Janney, Kathleen Wihoite, Elizabeth Mitchell

More info: IMDb

Tagline:  She's chasing a dream... they're chasing her.

Plot:  A Kansas City waitress with dreams of becoming a nurse becomes delusional after seeing her no-good car salesman husband murdered. Becoming delusional from shock, she becomes convinced that she is the former fiancée of her soap opera idol. What she also believes is that the soap opera is real and goes to LA to find the hospital where he works as a cardiologist. Meanwhile, her husband's murderers are searching for the drugs stolen by her husband and, as luck would have it, they are stored in the trunk of the car she drove off in. Freeman, an aging hit man planning his retirement after this job, also becomes delusional about the woman he is tracking.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

AS THE SPOILERS TURN!!!  YARRRRRR!!!

I first watched this at least a dozen years ago and when I popped it in again tonight, I honestly thought I would be seeing it for the last time.  I remember it being really good but it's even better than I remember and I can't let this one go just yet.  The performances are great.  Really great.   I love the relationship between Charlie (Freeman) and Wesley (Rock). And I love how you don't know they're father and son until Wesley gets shot and cries "daddy".  It still chokes me up.  The mix of comedy and hard drama is outstanding.  LaBute does a fantastic job of bringing those two elements together seamlessly.  Betty's delusional behavior is both funny and sad simultaneously and it gets darker as the story moves on.  The story is tops and it creates a beautiful balance in tone with some very colorful characters.  I love it.  It's as simple as that.  If I haven't said it before then I'm sayin' it now...Allison Janney needs to have my babies.  There.  The Universal DVD has a nice anamorphic widescreen print with a few extras in a commentary from LaBute, 9 three minute episodes of the fake soap opera A Reason to Love (these look fun but I haven't watched them yet), 5 deleted scenes, the theatrical trailer (non-anamorphic widescreen) and 6 TV spots.