Nurse Betty (2000)

After witnessing the murder of her husband (Aaron Eckhart), a waitress (Renee Zellweger) becomes traumatized and blots out the incident. She leaves Oklahoma for Los Angeles, where she plans to seek out an actor (Greg Kinnear) who plays a doctor on a soap opera. Meanwhile, her husband's killers (Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock) are in pursuit of her. Directed by Neil LaBute, this may be his most mainstream film but there's still a lot of the dark pessimism of his indie films. It doesn't go mushy until the film's final 7 minutes which I could have done without frankly. Up until then however, this is an excellent black comedy with sterling performances especially by Freeman and Rock (who seemed to have walked in from a Tarantino film) who have a great give and take chemistry here. It's an original spin on a potentially ludicrous set up but LaBute and his cast pull it off. With Allison Janney, Crispin Glover, Elizabeth Mitchell, Tia Texada and Kathleen Wilhoite.