Review: "The Good Nurse"
Friday, October 21, 2022 at 9:00AM
By Christopher James
Talented actors can only take a project so far. Netflix’s latest feature, The Good Nurse, lives up to its title, but not by much. Based on a true story of a nurse who poisoned a large number of patients across ten hospitals, the source material is perfect for a true crime obsessive. However, what usually makes those stories interesting are the odd details that lodge into a viewer’s brain, making the story unable to shake off. The Good Nurse is an aggressive play straight down the middle, as it opts to be more of a character piece. Oscar winners Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne do plenty of heavy lifting in the lead roles, but can’t turn an okay movie into a great one.
Our titular “Good Nurse,” Amy Loughren (Jessica Chastain) is what we call a trope magnet...
She’s a single mother who works too hard, who loves her kids and never stops, with gentle hands and the heart of a fighter. Actually, scratch that, she has a very weak heart and is months away from having a stroke or fatal heart attack. Coincidentally, she’s also just a few months away from getting health insurance from her ICU nursing job. It’s a demanding tightrope for Amy to walk. Luckily, she makes friends with a new nurse, Charlie Cullen (Eddie Redmayne), who catches wind of her situation and vows to help her manage her burden, both at work and at home. His acts of kindness mask a more daunting concern, patients are unexpectedly dying in the ICU.
Amy (Jessica Chastain) senses something is afoot once healthy patients wind up dead.
We can see from the opening scene from Eddie Redmayne’s darting eyes and the ominous lighting and music cues that Charlie is clearly behind these deaths. It’s not long before we are introduced to cops, played by Noah Emmerich and Nnamdi Asomugha, who also believe that these deaths are murders and that Charlie is the culprit. Unfortunately, we’re always a few steps ahead of Amy, our protagonist, who is just trying to get by and manage her heart condition and family woes. The movie really shifts into gear when Amy begins piecing the clues together and working with the cops.
Still, this is the type of role that Jessica Chastain excels at. She’s able to deliver high intensity drama with precision and depth. Her best moments come when she becomes a full double agent, trying to eek a confession out from Charlie. We sense the stress that Amy is under by being a part of this investigation, and Chastain makes us feel every beat of her heart.
What is going on within Charlie's (Eddie Redmayne) gaze?She’s matched well by Eddie Redmayne, a talented actor who often goes too broad or overly mannered for his own good. Here, he’s modulated perfectly. Charlie appears to be an affable loner, sad about not being able to see his kids. He builds enough trust with the audience that we understand Amy’s shock when she learns that he’s killing patients. We don’t see too much of his sinister side, only in quick, yet haunting glimpses. To his credit, Redmayne makes it feel like both sides of his personality come from the same person. It’s a technically skillful performance that elevates a mostly bare characterization of Charlie in the script.
This is where the script by Krysty Wilson-Cairns could’ve used some notes. Chastain and Redmayne’s friendship is the heart of the film; yet, we are always three steps ahead. There could’ve been so much more tension if we also doubted whether Charlie was murdering these patients or not. It could’ve taken us even further into the mindset of Amy, allowing us to delve into her psyche and fears. Instead, we get copious doctor visits and expository dialogue to artificially amp up the drama. We also spend too much time with our hardworking cops getting nowhere with the hospital bureaucracy, embodied by Kim Dickens as a nefariously ineffectual risk manager for the hospital.
Not all friendships work out, as Amy realizes Charlie is behind the deaths of patients at their hospital.
Danish Director Tobias Lindholm (A War) makes his English language debut with this film, but something gets lost in translation. Each shot is as sterile as the hospital setting. Meanwhile, many scenes end with an on-the-nose cutaway that borders on camp. There’s a distinct lack of fun to the film, which is perhaps why some unintentional humor pierces through. The personality of the film is carried solely by the two leads, who do an admirable job. In the end, both forces converge into an interesting, watchable, middle-of-the-road film. To damn with faint praise, it’s the perfect movie for streaming. A viewer can watch while doing other things, still get the gist of what’s going on and have an ultimately satisfying time. With two Oscar winners on the poster, the bar should be a bit higher though. C+
The Good Nurse is playing in limited release and will begin streaming on Netflix Wednesday, October 26th.
Reader Comments (3)
Is there a prize or a dose of shame for being the first reader to identify the use of the lyric from the old Reba McEntire sit com theme within the review?
@Finbar: A prize of course! :-)
Christopher, thanks for this insightful review. I am disappointed that Jessica won't be getting a followup nomination to her well-deserved Oscar win. This sounds like yet another example of her being so much better than her material. She deserves so much better than these boilerplate films.