If all this sounds like jovial farce on paper, it takes plenty of dark turns in the hands of LaBute (who wrote and directed ''In the Company of Men'' and ''Your Friends & Neighbors''). According to Rock, that's because the director did quite a bit of uncredited rewriting. ''He really honed it right,'' says the comedian. ''I would try out things in rehearsal. Next day I look, Neil's got it in the script. I realized, oh, okay, he's listening.''
Fortunately for LaBute, his financial overseers weren't nearly so attuned. The picture was originally financed by PolyGram, but during production, the studio broke up, and Universal, partnering with USA Films, wound up in charge. ''We flew in under the radar,'' says LaBute. ''We were done by the time Universal looked up and said, 'Hey, what's going on with this ''Nurse Betty'' thing?''' GOOD SIGN Some say this is Zellweger's best performance yet, and a screenplay award at Cannes can't hurt at Oscar campaign time. THEN AGAIN LaBute's first two movies made more noise in the press than at the box office.
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