Nurse Betty 2000

Ebert & Roeper: Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: At its best, Nurse Betty is so much fun, you hate to dissect it. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: 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. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: 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. Read more

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: 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. Read more

Paul Tatara, CNN.com: LaBute, as always, has put together a great cast. Read more

Steven Rosen, Denver Post: Despite some good acting, interesting illusion-vs.-reality plot scenarios and subtle humor. It just doesn't jell well. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: As with all good uses of enchantment, Nurse Betty deposits us, in the end, back where we started -- but different, changed, with new ways of looking. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: The flip side to LaBute's cheapjack cynicism, as it turns out, is a cheapjack romanticism. They're equally counterfeit. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: The actors hold the movie together, particularly Ms. Zellweger and Mr. Freeman, whose characters achieve a remarkable intimacy in a most unlikely situation. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Nurse Betty's two hallmarks are originality and star quality, both of which combine to draw the viewer through the film's occasional rough spots. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Nurse Betty is one of those films where you don't know whether to laugh or cringe, and find yourself doing both. Read more

Charles Taylor, Salon.com: In terms of the taste it leaves behind, the difference between LaBute's first two films and Nurse Betty is the difference between eating a bucket of bad clams and coming upon them deliberately placed in a seafood dinner. Read more

Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle: After a summer of brain-numbing junk, Nurse Betty seems like a reprieve. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: Almost every emotion and action on view is presented as false, idiotic or superficial. Read more

Emanuel Levy, Variety: 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 Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Whether or not Betty sustains her character, the movie fails to maintain its own. The scenario falls apart. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: This year's Being John Malkovich. Read more