Nurse Betty

Kansas waitress Zellweger is already obsessed, like most of her friends, with a hospital soap and its leading man (Kinnear); but after witnessing her awful husband's murder at the hands of drug dealers Freeman and Rock, she's so traumatised that she sets off for LA determined to reunite with her long-lost love - the fictional doctor - while killers, cops and pals follow her tracks in none too hot pursuit. A slick, clever, heartless satire on a society whose dreams, ambitions and mores are influenced at every turn by the deceptive blandishments of TV culture, LaBute's third feature, though scripted by others, is as cynical as its predecessors. Almost every emotion and action on view is presented as false, idiotic or superficial. There are more clichés than meet the eye too (viz the arguing, philosophising hitmen), and despite some very funny moments, only the truly horrific murder rings true.