340. The Good Nurse; movie review

 

THE GOOD NURSE

Cert 15

121 mins

BBFC advice: Contains strong language

Here's a movie which had completely escaped my radar until I saw that Eddie Redmayne had been nominated for a Golden Globe.

And I have to report that we were transfixed by Tobias Lindholm's The Good Nurse.

Indeed, its standing with us increased even further when I read how close the representation is to the true story of Charles Cullen (Redmayne).

The movie tells how Cullen, who killed at least 29 and probably hundreds of hospital patients, was finally apprehended.

It begins with him joining a hospital as an experienced nurse, assigned to its under-pressure intensive care unit.

There he works alongside Amy Loughren (Jessica Chastain), a single-parent who is trying to juggle night work with child care.

The two find themselves unexpectedly at the centre of an investigation, seven weeks after one of their patients dies.

Meanwhile, two detectives (Nnamdi Asomugha and Noah Emmerich) are assigned to the case but find their way mysteriously blocked by hospital authorities.

It is well-documented that Cullen is one of America's worst serial killers but there is still considerable tension around his eventual capture.

The Good Nurse also poses significant questions about how hospitals dealt with him when they had their suspicions.

Can it be that they put their reputations before the safety of their patients?

And is it possible that management put pressure on staff not to raise their fears with the police?

Chastain gives a typically high-standard performance as the nurse who is wrestling with her conscience.

Meanwhile, Redmayne is interestingly subdued as Cullen - an intriguing mix of normal guy, cloaking the evil beneath.

I am not sure he is worthy of a Golden Globe nomination but I am glad he has one, otherwise we may not have been alerted to an enthralling movie which takes pleasingly few liberties with the truth.

Reasons to watch: Shattering true story

Reasons to avoid: A tad too melodramatic

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 9/10

Did you know? Research by Birmingham City University showed an insulin overdose was the most common method, used by a quarter of the healthcare serial killers with other medications and substances including muscle relaxants, opiates, potassium and bleach also used.

The final word. Jessica Chastain: "It wasn’t fetishising violence and really giving us the full journey of this person who becomes this mass murderer. Instead, he (Tobias Lindholm) wanted to focus on what stopped it, and celebrate and acknowledge what actually took it down." Stylist

Share this post