The Good Nurse is a slick true crime film that features a great performance from Jessica Chastain and a brilliantly disturbing one from Eddie Redmayne.
Overall Score: 9/10
Image: Netflix
“Well, you guys just push on the button if you need anything. Anytime, I'm here. I'm your Amy for tonight.”
Trust me, no matter how sick or injured you are, you do not want a nurse like Charles Cullen anywhere near you.
The Good Nurse tells the true story of Cullen, a nurse and serial killer who went around murdering patients. The film mostly follows Amy Loughren — also a nurse — who, we learn quite early on, is ill and needs to continue working at Parkfield Memorial Hospital for four months before she receives health insurance. On top of that, she’s a mother of two. And because she works the night shift, she’s unable to spend as much time as she should with her kids. One day, however, in walks Charlie — as Cullen is called in the film — who, after befriending and learning of Amy’s illness, offers to help her in any way that he can.
You see, from Amy’s point of view, Charlie seems like an angel — someone in her life who’s always there to support her and wants nothing but what’s best for her. To the audience, however, it’s made clear from the very start that Charlie is not at all the good and honest person he appears to be, but instead, a harbinger of death. That’s part of what makes The Good Nurse so unsettling. We watch as Amy slowly comes to question whether or not Charlie is who she thinks he is and we see her become horrified after her suspicions are confirmed. It’s all executed slowly, and her realization only comes after Charlie has already integrated himself almost fully into her private life, putting her and her loved ones in a potentially life-threatening situation.
A big reason why the film works is because of how well director Tobias Lindholm and writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns bring this shocking tale to life. I think that they do a good job of creating an eerie and suspenseful atmosphere, pacing the story, and guiding their actors on how to act in each scene. And while their efforts don’t exactly result in something that reaches the heights of films like David Fincher’s Zodiac, I’d argue that their work ultimately still ends up being a solid true crime drama.
Also, I was surprised to see that The Good Nurse actually contains a little bit of social commentary. What I mean by this is that it shows us, through one very clear example, how the hospitals Charlie (or the real-life Cullen) worked at dealt with him. What did they do? Absolutely nothing. That’s to say that although they may have been suspicious of him, they didn’t report him nor did they take legal action. Instead, they let him go, essentially letting him become somebody else’s problem and allowing him to continue killing patients. I find such negligence to be disgusting and I think that it shines a light on people and organizations that turn a blind eye to wrongdoings committed by others. Therefore, I ended up really liking the message that the film seems to be trying to get across: If you witness a crime and have the power to stop it but do nothing, you’re a part of the problem and should be held accountable.
As for the acting, Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne both, as usual, knock it out of the park. Chastain, who plays Amy, brings a sense of warmth and realism to her role and she makes it easy for us to sympathize with her. It’s not a showy performance like her recent Oscar-winning one in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, but I think that it’s a strong and memorable one nevertheless.
But regardless of how great Chastain’s work here is, I think that Redmayne’s turn as Charlie is even more impressive. Playing against type, Redmayne’s portrayal of Cullen is quite disturbing. To me, it’s like a pendulum in a grandfather’s clock. It swings left and right between friendly and creepy, all the while being contained within the illusion of mundanity. It’s the kind of performance that terrifies me because although I know that he’s playing a bad person who’s done horrible, horrible things, on the surface, he seems like a perfectly normal and honest guy. Seriously, well done, Eddie Redmayne. Well done.
In the end, The Good Nurse is an engrossing and well-made true crime film that boasts terrific performances from Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne. Furthermore, I think that the deeper message it carries concerning negligence and accountability is important and that it should be heard. This is as much a tale about crime as it is about enabling it, and I hope that through this film, people will be reminded to report and take action against unlawful acts and made aware of the potential harms of just sitting by and doing nothing.
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