Nurse Betty

Director Neil LaBute tones down his usual fixation on misogyny and social savagery (In the Company of Men, Your Friends & Neighbors) with this dark, violence-splashed comedy about the thin line between—and intersection of—reality and fantasy. Kansas coffee shop waitress Betty (Rene Zellweger at her sunny sweetheart best) has a Neanderthal husband (Aaron Eckhart), a dreary homelike and an insatiable jones for a daytime soap opera. She tailspins into a state of dementia after witnessing the murder of her hubby and goes to Los Angeles in search of her dreamboat TV doctor (Greg Kinnear). Writers John C. Richardson and James Flamberg won an award at Cannes for their screenplay.