Unable to handle what she has seen, Zellweger becomes delusional. She drives to California to resume a romance she believes she once had with a heart surgeon, when in fact this surgeon is actually a character (played by Greg Kinnear) on a soap opera.
Freeman and Rock learn that Zellweger was a witness to their murder, and gradually pick up her trail. Meanwhile, Zellweger makes surprising progress in her quest to win the fictional doctor. She lands a nursing job, where she is befriended by a hottie Latina (Rosa Hernandez). She meets Kinnear at a reception, who mistakes her for an ambitious method actress. This leads to an audition on his soap opera.
How others will see it. The initial buzz was good. Nurse Betty won Best Screenplay at Cannes, then Zellweger picked up a Golden Globe for Best Actress. But the film was ignored by Oscar, and its curious mix of violent crime and romantic comedy failed to ignite fans of either genre. The film made a profit with some difficulty, and has only middling user ratings at imdb.com.
I suspect that the lack of success for the film, at least relative to its quality, has to do with the violence. There are two murders and one suicide, presented with some degree of gore. There is also a question of credibility. The outrageous Chris Rock and the genteel Morgan Freeman are hard to buy as father and son, and it is even more difficult to accept Freeman as a 35-year professional killer once he develops a serious crush on Zellweger. The exaggerated happy ending is piled on too thick, and if a bartender can spot Betty as a nutcase in a ten minute conversation, how could she fool half the cast of the soap opera? Or get hired as a nurse? And why doesn't Rosa kick out her new roommate once she learns she's a mental case?
But I don't think it was the story that alienated many viewers. It was the mixing of genre. Fans of Chris Rock and fans of Reneé Zellweger expected to see very different movies, and neither audience quite got what they wanted.
How I felt about it. I'm generally not offended by film violence. Usually, when I am offended, it occurs when a character is depicted in physical pain and the audience is expected to laugh. An example would be Home Alone 2, when Daniel Stern is hit on the head by a brick dropped from a building. Not funny, and not survivable, either.
None of the violence shown in Nurse Betty bothers me. On the other hand, the violence not shown, Morgan Freeman taking himself out, does bother me. It seems to be an easy way for the director to remove Freeman from the story, which allows a happy ending, or at least LaBute's idea of it. Romance lovers would probably have preferred that Greg Kinnear get his act together and sweep Zellweger off her feet. Instead, she vacations alone in Europe, as if to vindicate the 'sage' comments made to her by a killer on the verge of suicide.
All complaints aside, Nurse Betty is a highly interesting film that has a fine script and skilled direction. It is unfortunate that audiences failed to embrace it for the wrong reason, that it didn't cater to their expectations.