The Good Nurse–Compromising Bedside Manner
Inspired by a true story ripped from the headlines, The Good Nurse, a medical thriller, takes the viewer on a nightmare ride of the ICU unit at Parkfield Memorial Hospital, in New Jersey. The year is 2003. Charlie Cullens (the incomparable Eddie Redmayne) is hired to help Amy Loughren (the always dazzling Jessica Chastain), an overworked nurse and single mother with a life-threatening heart condition. Ironically, Amy cannot afford the medical care she desperately needs while working in a hospital.
Grateful to have a highly competent nurse to share nursing challenges and personal ones as well, the two become close friends and backup support for each other and for Amy’s children. However, the trusting relationship soon grows dark over the course of several months as patients mysteriously die for unknown reasons.
The Good Nurse is not so much a whodunit–since that becomes obvious quite early in the film–but more of who-gets-away. And Charlie has been so unbelievably kind and his charm belies a dark psyche…or not? Is there really a plot to destroy Charlie’s reputation as her guardian angel?
Amy needs to know, and both the administration and law officials are starkly unsympathetic to her misgivings. Perhaps most noteworthy is the improbable heartache from both sides of Charlie and Amy’s friendship.
Redmayne gives perhaps his most chilling performance to date and Chastain is, in every scene, his equal. And The Good Nurse is an unflinching indictment of the healthcare system, with superb performances by both Academy Award-winning actors. Although the backstory of both main characters could have been developed, the tension is ratcheted without that information and certainly worth watching.
Availability: Netflix streaming