Betty
is about a film star, Betty Monday (played by Cheryl Pollak),
who one day drives to Palm Desert to rent a house from a retired
couple in order to find a life for herself. In so doing she
fails to report for work on a $70 million Christmas movie.
The reason is that she is overstressed and is going through
an identity crisis; she wants to meet real people and lead
a normal life. One of the taglines is "The world’s biggest
movie star is missing, and nobody’s gonna find her until she
finds herself." En route to the home, she gets out of her
car, leaving the engine running, and sobs. Titles mark seven
parts of the film. In "Betty’s Deed," we learn about her rental,
as the rental agent, Vincent Lord (played by Udo Kier), explains
some of the features of the house and says that the owners
are "nice." When Betty hysterically asks whether he is making
up the "nice people" story, he admits that he has never met
the couple, and she thanks him for his honesty, saying that
honesty is a scarce commodity. In the "Peace and Quiet" segment,
she is jarred by the ringing of telephones and insects around
the pool and cannot find anything to do. Next, she has several
boxes of cereal delivered by a nearby store, dumps the contents
into the pool, and uses the pool strainer to remove them.
She also calls her agent Crystal Ball (played by Holland Taylor),
telling her that she feels empty because she lacks a "real
job," whereupon Crystal goes ballistic; indeed, we sense that
Crystal is the one who bugs Betty even more than filmmaking.
In "Sheila," she interacts with Fred (played by Stephen Gregory),
who arrives to handle pool maintenance, and then begs to be
his assistant, offering him $2,000 per week to do so. She
then accompanies him and learns about pool maintenance, but
between home visits she tries to get better acquainted and
is nearly fired for chattering too much. In "Cleansed," Donnie
Shank (played by Ron Perlman) rings her doorbell to sell her
a topical analgesic, and soon she agrees to telemarket the
product for him. Soon, Burt Becker (played by Dan O’Donahue),
a grocery delivery man, arrives, and she becomes interested
in delivering groceries; however, when she does so, a fan
recognizes her, and she races to the car to get away before
her picture is taken. Burt also agrees to teach her how to
play golf. In "Duel by the Pool," she again tries to find
some way to relate to Fred, but he has no interest in films
or television, so she invites him for dinner. When he says
"No" because that night is poker night, she invites the poker
gang over to her house and provides snack food, but Burt and
Donnie come calling and join the party. Then Crystal arrives,
blows her cover as a film star to all present, and tries to
force her into returning to the movie set by applying a headlock
as if to drag her away, whereupon the poker gang intervenes,
and Crystal returns to Hollywood without Betty. In "Rabbit
Down," the poker gang leaves for Donnie's motel, interested
in telemarketing the topical pain remedy. She tries her hand
at telemarketing but is unsuccessful. Fred then arrives on
an emergency call to remove a dead rabbit from a pool. In
the final segment, "The Artist Former Known as Sheila," she
recovers her sanity. Fred confesses that he saw her latest
film, a tearjerker, to a packed audience, and tells her that
she is a great actress but will never be a success in the
pool maintenance business. Next, she runs into Burt and Shank,
who have teamed up; Burt plans to be Shank’s assistant on
the road, and Shank tells Betty that she will never be a successful
telemarketer. Fred arrives and gives her back her $2,000 plus
the $300 that she earned as a pool maintenance assistant as
a way of saying farewell. Betty hugs him and cries that she
will not see him again. But she has enjoyed interacting with
real people all week, feels calm and collected, and drives
back to Hollywood. Written, directed, and coproduced by Richard
Murphy, Betty is the umteenth film about the
stress of working in Hollywood but is refreshed by many comedic
situations. MH
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