Aug. 09, 2002 - 2:08 am

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Nurse Betty (2000)

well, i've been very interested in seeing the upcoming Gwyneth Paltrow film Possession (2002), so i decided to see this film which came from the same director, Neil LaBute. it turned out to be an interesting film on quite a few levels, but not one that really drew me in. i get the feeling that Possession will be quite a different sort of thing altogether just because of the subject matter, but i still wanted to get the point of reference.

this is sort of a dark comedy. i laughed at a couple of things that happened in the film, but mostly i just sat there staring blankly at the screen. it rather baffled me. i don't think i've ever seen a film quite like this before. and i don't think i've ever seen a man get scalped onscreen before. especially not in something spoken of as a comedy.

it's about a young woman who witnesses her husband's brutal murder by two hitmen hired by drug dealers. the shock forces her to go temporarily insane and she believes that she is a part of the soap opera that she has been watching religiously for years. she then goes on a journey from her home in Kansas to Los Angeles in order to find the man of her dreams, the fictional Dr. David Ravell. once the hitmen realize that someone witnessed the murder, they come after her. the older one starts to become obsessed with her in a romantic sense. yeah. there's some weird stuff happening in this film.

i was amazed to learn at the end of the film that Chris Rock is supposed to be Morgan Freeman's son. apparently i was supposed to have known that all along, but i didn't think they acted like father and son. weird. this movie just made me feel kind of awkward at parts and i thought it was generally strange.

hopefully this strange feeling will work better for a film with a title like Possession. we shall see.