Swerving from viciousness to whimsy to dubious feminist fable, Nurse Betty doesn't jell. Still, with a cast as charmed as this, it comes oh so close.

| Mar 7, 2018

This comedy has a few violent scenes.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 26, 2010

The actors hold the movie together, particularly Ms. Zellweger and Mr. Freeman, whose characters achieve a remarkable intimacy in a most unlikely situation.

| Apr 27, 2007

In his third, most accomplished film, LaBute puts aside the inquiry of misogyny that dominated his previous work and immerses himself in a lighter romantic fable about the collision of fantasy and reality, with a terrific performance from Renee Zelwegger

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jul 23, 2006

Almost every emotion and action on view is presented as false, idiotic or superficial.

| Jan 26, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 25, 2003

While Nurse Betty proves that LaBute has more than one string to his bow, you can't help thinking that he makes more memorable cinema when revelling in misanthropy.

| Dec 3, 2002

Does LaBute feel any sympathy for his victimized women, or merely contempt for their weakness?

| Original Score: D- | May 8, 2002

LaBute didn't write Nurse Betty, but his fierce comic touch is, luckily, all over this movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | May 10, 2001

The year's most enjoyable -- and most surprising -- fairy tale.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

As it overdoses on quirks and violence, Nurse Betty isn't always the right prescription. But observing Zellweger as she dispenses her brand of movie magic definitely is good for what ails you.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

Neil LaBute might have made the perfect capper for the end of the Clinton era -- a decade when the only bad lie was a badly told one.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

If Nurse Betty is any indication, these slightly more commercial movies won't be mere digressions or artistic sellouts; they'll be worth the wait, even if they aren't as distinctive or as sure-footed as his more challenging personal projects.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

If the notion that the rancorous writer and director Neil LaBute cares about you sounds like a hoax, it probably is. But for most of his third film -- the erratic, groovy Nurse Betty -- he's convinced himself, and you as well, that it's true.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

This oddly cheerful, decreasingly dark comedy actually works and can boast some of the most enjoyable performances of the year.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

LaBute ensures that the two worlds cross imaginatively and that other actors - even when not on screen all the time - have full roles too.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 1, 2000

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 1, 2000

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 1, 2000

Zellweger is the best she's ever been.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

A triumph for Mr. LaBute as it is for its cast, because its success is so dependent on its sustaining a precarious balance between humor and pathos, realism and fantasy.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jan 1, 2000