Sweet-natured Kansas waitress Betty Sizemore (Renée Zellweger) dreams of becoming a nurse.
When she witnesses her sleazy, drug-dealing, wife-abusing car salesman husband Del (Aaron Eckhart) being brutally murdered by hitmen, she suffers a psychological breakdown, enters a fugue state and becomes convinced that she is the former fiancée of Dr David Ravell (Greg Kinnear), her idol from the daytime soap opera A Reason to Love.
She now believes that the soap opera is real and travels to Los Angeles to find the hospital where he works as a cardiologist.
Meanwhile, her husband’s murderers are searching for the drugs he stole, which – as luck would have it – are stored in the boot (trunk) of the car Betty is driving.
Ageing hitman Charlie (Morgan Freeman) – who is planning his retirement after this final job – also becomes delusional about the woman he is tracking.
When Betty finally meets George McCord (the actor who plays Dr Ravell), he mistakes her intense, delusional earnestness for a brilliant piece of method acting and improvisational auditioning, and casts her on the actual show.
The film ends on a whimsical, feel-good moment as Betty is now a famous TV star, enjoying a life she could previously only have dreamed of.
Charlie
Morgan Freeman Betty Sizemore
Renée Zellweger Wesley
Chris Rock Dr David Ravell/George McCord
Greg Kinnear Del Sizemore
Aaron Eckhart Rosa
Tia Texada Roy
Crispin Glover Ballard
Pruitt Taylor Vince Lyla
Allison Janney Sue Ann
Kathleen Wilhoite Chloe
Elizabeth Mitchell Darlene
Susan Barnes Ellen
Harriet Sansom Harris Jasmine
Lee Sung Hi Dr Lonnie Walsh
Laird Macintosh Blake
Steven Gilborn Mercedes
Jenny Gago Joyce
Sheila Kelley Merle
Matthew Cowles Doctor
Wayne Tippit Grandfather
George D. Wallace Grandmother
Lesley Woods Chief Nurse
Cynthia Martells ER Doctor
Alfonso Freeman Gloria Walsh
Deborah May Rosa’s Mother
Irene Olga López
Director
Neil LaBute
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When she witnesses her sleazy, drug-dealing, wife-abusing car salesman husband Del (Aaron Eckhart) being brutally murdered by hitmen, she suffers a psychological breakdown, enters a fugue state and becomes convinced that she is the former fiancée of Dr David Ravell (Greg Kinnear), her idol from the daytime soap opera A Reason to Love.
