Documentary honors baseball great> Jewish slugger Greenberg remembered for contributions on and off field

In theaters

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HANK GREENBERG. Directed by Aviva Kempner.

95 minutes. No MPAA rating. Now playing, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville.

Aviva Kempner’s excellent documentary, “The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg,” is the sort of film Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker should be asked to sit and watch. It follows the life and times of a legend of baseball, a man who not only was one of the game’s most celebrated players, but who was also a hero to Jews in the 1930s and 1940s.

“Hammerin’ Hank” Greenberg, as he was called by his legions of fans, wasn’t just the first Jewish baseball star to ignite the game, but the first major league player to earn more than $100,000 per year.

His achievements are remarkable – certainly on par with his contemporaries, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig – but perhaps even more impressive considering the wall of discrimination he faced every day he took to the field.

Whether at first base, left field or up at bat, it was routine for scores of men and women to scream anti-Semitic slurs at Greenberg in an effort to distract him from the game.

It didn’t happen. Absolutely focused and incredibly gifted, Greenberg – a towering man of 6’4″ who died in 1986 – was a force, a player driven to succeed, but not necessarily at the cost of his religion.

In 1934, for instance, when his team, the Detroit Tigers, had a chance to win the pennant, he received permission from his rabbi to play ball on Rosh Hashanah, but he later chose not play on Yom Kippur. Instead, he went to synagogue – where he received a standing ovation and won the respect of his community.

This story, and countless others, are brought to vivid life in the film, which uses a wealth of historical footage, newspaper photos, interviews with Greenberg, his friends and family, and scenesfrom such films as “Gentleman’s Agreement,” “Night at the Opera,” “Pride of St. Louis” and “Woman of the Year” to chronicle a time, capture a country and give shape to a man, who admits the relentless discrimination he endured not only made him a stronger player, but a better man.

Grade: A-

NURSE BETTY. Directed by Neil LaBute. Written by John C. Richards and James Flamberg, based on a story by Richards. 112 minutes. Rated R.

Neil LaBute’s “Nurse Betty” is something of a surprise, if only because it comes from Neil LaBute. His dark, scathing social commentaries “In the Company of Men” and “Your Friends & Neighbors” not only earned him a reputation for being a writer and director with a nasty edge, but – by some feminist groups and critics – as a lout and a misogynist.

“Nurse Betty” couldn’t be further removed. It follows Betty Sizemore (Renee Zellweger), a hypersensitive Kansas waitress whose life doesn’t so much revolve around her philandering jerk of a husband, Del (Aaron Eckhart), but around a soap opera called “A Reason to Love.”

There, in the show’s racy dream world, Betty sinks into her own, finding solace and comfort in characters she knows better than herself.

Her love of the show probably would have remained benign if Del hadn’t been so violently murdered by Charlie (Morgan Freeman) and Wesley (Chris Rock), two hired killers who knock off Del for reasons that won’t be revealed here.

Betty’s witnessing of the murder sends her into a temporary state of shock and insanity. Convinced “A Reason to Love” is real, she flees the scene of her husband’s death and follows the yellow brick road (in this case, the highway) for the Oz of Los Angeles.

There she hopes to be reunited with a man she’s convinced is her former fiancTe, Dr. David Ravell (Greg Kinnear), who’s real name is George McCord, an actor on “A Reason to Love.”

Since Charlie and Wesley know Betty saw the murder, they take to the highway, give chase, and the film, in part, becomes a road movie.

Modeled after “Wizard of Oz” – LaBute goes so far as to put Betty in a gingham dress to make the connection – “Nurse Betty” initially feels as if we’re watching rehearsals. None of the actors connect until the film’s midpoint, when the unwieldy plot suddenly begins to gel, the script becomes less contrived and the cast steps fully into their characters.

Zellweger and Kinnear have great chemistry when they’re finally paired, as do Freeman and Zellweger in a final, moving scene, but they’re all upstaged by the sterling addition of Allison Janney, who plays the producer of “A Reason to Love.”

Ultimately, it’s her bite and ferocious wit that give this long, overly sentimental film the lift its first half lacked.

Grade: C+

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Monday and Thursday in the NEWS, and Tuesday and Thursday on “NEWS CENTER at 5:30” and “NEWS CENTER at 11.”