'The Good Nurse' Review: Chilling Procedural Thriller Needs A Little Longer On The Operating Table
Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain try their best with The Good Nurse, which ultimately falls apart due to its dull story and uneven pacing.
Anybody who’s ever found themselves lying in a hospital bed will recognize the sinking realization that your current wellbeing - sometimes even your entire life - lies in the hands of a complete stranger. It’s a strange and often undiscussed power dynamic that’s just a part of everyday life for thousands of nurses across the world, but Netflix’s latest thriller The Good Nurse uses the horrifying true story of American serial killer Charles Cullen to ignite a whole new fear in its audience - are the hospital robes and years of training really enough to warrant giving somebody control over life and death? What happens when those with the most power don’t know how to use it? Those are the questions that The Good Nurse poses upon its viewers, and although the film might not be as engaging and well-crafted as it could be, Cullen’s story is one that will crawl under your skin and stay there for a long time.
There’s no shortage of true-crime thrillers in theatres and streaming right now, but if you’re looking for a story that will truly disgust you with its raw inhumanity and shocking transparency, the crimes of Charles Cullen are a fascinating place to start. It’s believed that the former nurse murdered over 400 patients under his care throughout his 16-year career, jumping between hospitals every few years to evade suspicion. Unlike many prolific serial killers, Cullen has revealed no motive over the years, with most experts and psychologists believing the killer’s actions to simply be distorted compulsions. And even though the majority of The Good Nurse focuses on the investigation into Cullen’s crimes, it’s also a fitting exploration of his psychosis with some genuinely chilling scenes that rank among Eddie Redmayne’s best work to date.
Redmayne is absolutely electric in The Good Nurse, delivering a performance that’s both incredibly subtle and hauntingly powerful exactly when it needs to be. He commands the screen whenever he appears, whether that’s with his false charisma in the film’s first half or with his overwhelming anger and emotion once the façade begins to crack. It’s during his scenes that the film really shines, and unfortunately, it’s during the scenes without him that it truly falls behind. The Good Nurse constantly seems unable to decide whether it’s the story of Charlie Cullen or the story of those that brought him to justice, and as such, it completely lacks focus from start to finish. The investigative sections can feel dull and drawn out, often wasting time on the intricate details of Cullen’s crimes and mistakes, and failing to actually create any tension or engagement. Jessica Chastain does her best, but the script is way too thin and shallow for her emotional performance to leave any impact. But when the two characters come together, either in their personal or professional lives, that’s where the story really shines. If the film’s investigative style had been sacrificed for a more intimate look into the pair’s complex dynamic, The Good Nurse could have really been something special.
But unfortunately, that just isn’t the case. The film’s script is so focused on exploring every aspect of Cullen’s story that it fails to effectively navigate any one aspect in enough detail. The romance falls flat, the investigation is rushed and messy, and it’s hard to even call the film a true thriller because there’s nowhere near enough narrative momentum to incite that thrilling feeling in the audience. If The Good Nurse really wanted to get away with being an exciting thriller, the script needed several more revisions and several subplots unfortunately needed to be left on the cutting room floor. Otherwise, the film certainly would have played better as a miniseries, where more time could be given to each individual part of the story.
Regardless, fans of the true crime genre will likely find something to enjoy with The Good Nurse, simply because Cullen’s story is so unbelievably shocking. His crimes continue to evade explanation today, and his apparent lack of motive makes this a gripping mystery that just begs to be solved. But if you’re watching The Good Nurse for the excitement of a high-stakes thriller with an exciting story, it’s hard to imagine that you’ll experience anything other than disappointment and frustration. Its overwhelmingly slow pace will undoubtedly deter many audiences right from the beginning, and it doesn’t get any faster from there. The film takes the concept of a slow-burn mystery and fundamentally misunderstands it - instead of sparking a fire and letting it gradually flare into something spectacular, The Good Nurse piles way too many logs onto a weak flame until all glimpses of light are extinguished and fizzle away into nothingness.