THE GOOD NURSE

The Good Nurse contains enough harmless, easily digestible entertainment to more or less hold your attention, but there is no excuse for the overlong, laughably earnest final act.

If you put two Oscar winners in a run-of-the-mill film, does it elevate your viewing experience? I have seen examples where that is the case, but The Good Nurse isn't one of them.

Eddie Redmayne stars as serial killer Charles Cullen, who gave dozens of ICU patients a deadly drip, and Jessica Chastain as his friend and colleague, who gradually realises the devastating deeds Cullen has done. The main problem with the film is that much of the sting is taken out by the very first scene, which immediately positions Redmayne's Cullen as a one-note pathological baddie, with the actor chewing the scenery a little too voraciously to be taken seriously.

Chastain is better as the nurse who helps to bring him down, but she too is ill-served by a script that ticks off all the obligatory boxes yet doesn't deliver surprises, emotion or suspense.

In truth, The Good Nurse contains enough harmless, easily digestible entertainment to more or less hold your attention, but there is no excuse for the overlong, laughably earnest final act the movie serves up.

release: 2022

director: Tobias Lindholm

starring: Jessica Chastain, Eddie Redmayne, Kim Dickens, Noah Emmerich