The Good Nurse Movie Review: Hospital Serial Killer Drama Just What The Doctor Ordered
His phrase “based on a true story” predates so much drama these days that it makes my heart ache.
The limitations on real events can lead to a rather bad story, isn't anyone else making this up? But the true story of Tobias Lindholm, The Good Nurse , seems to be an honorable exception.
The atmosphere is bleak, and while the lack of twists in the third act may disappoint traditionalists, a bold moral earnestness underpins this serene and engaging film based on two subtle and understated satire.
Jessica Chastain as Amy Loren, a night nurse at a hospital whose work-life balance is disastrous.
A single mother of two daughters gives her patients all her time and attention, but she struggles to find the extra energy needed to be a mother.
His frequent breathing is a symptom of cardiomyopathy, a serious heart condition that can only be treated with a transplant.
Amy's dilemma is that she can't afford it and won't be covered by health insurance until she has eight months of hospitalization under her belt.
He wondered if it would last this long after an obvious savior entered his life. Charles Cullen (Eddie Redmayne) is a kind and adorable nurse who quickly diagnoses Amy's heart condition.
He started by helping her with the seizures, and getting rid of stolen drugs to ease the pain. Charles also hangs out with daughter Amy, and although their relationship is platonic, there is a strong bond between them.
Which makes Amy even more sick when she discovers something odd about Charles' behavior at work.
When a woman in his care suddenly dies, hospital administrators are reluctantly forced to investigate.
Several police investigators (Noah Emmerich and Nnamdi Asomugha) managed to excavate the body and found very high doses of insulin and other drugs in his system.
Suspicion quickly shifted to Charles, and investigators uncovered a gruesome trail of suspicious deaths, which other hospitals strangled for fear of litigation. Trembling, Amy realized that Charles was killing people by injecting insulin into a vein.
Audiences anticipating the level of villain Hannibal Lecter will likely be disappointed with The Good Nurse , which steadfastly refuses to lend any excitement to the mysterious case of Charles Cullen, the man who considers Hannah Arendt's infamous line a "banality of evil."
Quiet, dull and unobtrusive, Cullen is estimated to have killed as many as 400 people during his stays in various American hospitals in the 1980s and 1990s, making him, if true, America's most prolific serial killer.
No one knew why he did it, and Redmayne's appearance provided little clue. Quiet, attentive, always to himself, Charles makes a good impression of a finished person, who cares, but who can play a part. In moments of calm, his eyes look dead and alive just in anticipation of the next victim.
At one point, she told Amy how her mother died when she was 10 and that her body had been taken down and burned before she could see it. Could this be why he was forced to walk around and witness the slow deaths of others?
We can't be sure, and while Coleen's actual childhood was horribly dysfunctional, Lindholm's adorable and complex films carefully avoid it. As a result, Charles remains a useless mystery, as he should be.
Redmayne is beautiful, her soft voice and calm demeanor make you doubt your suspicions about her, even if it is well expressed.
However, he's not the only villain in the story, and The Good Nurse has made numerous references to the failed capitalist healthcare system that traditionally gets the marginalized and less affluent under the bus.
Rating: four stars
close
Luke MacFarlane and Billy Eichner of Bros
Crispy (16, 116 minutes)
It's sad that LGBTQ rom-coms in Hollywood are so rare that they seem like an event in itself, but Nicholas Stoller's Brothers . Certainly the first of its kind.
easily broken. Co-written with Stoller and Billy Eichner, Eichner plays Bobby Leiber, a New York talk show host and podcaster passionate about creating a national LGBTQ+ museum. While Bobby will tell anyone who will listen that he is thrilled to be single, his teary eyes say otherwise, and when he meets Aaron (Luke MacFarlane) at a nightclub, there's a pre-existing affair.
Aaron is a shy and frustrated businessman, while Bob hides his emotions behind a challenging campaign: each has a lot to learn from the other. This leaves Bros. It seems to push the agenda, but it doesn't - Stoller understands the dynamics of rom-coms inside and out, and in the classic way, opponents come together and struggle to reconcile their differences.
An excellent cast adds to the fun, especially the likes of TS Madison and Mrs. Lawrence, who had been bickering cheerfully at the Museum's board meeting.
Rating: four stars
close
Dolly De Leon and Charlie Dean comfort each other
Grief Triangle (15a, IFI, 147 min)
The rich and the unemployed stand a good chance in Robin Ostlund's Triangle of Sorrow , most of which is located on a luxury yacht full of spoiled sloths.
Among them are Karl Weya (Harris Dickinson, Charlby Dean), two models and "influencers" who have no original thoughts between them. When the storm begins, a drunken ship captain walks away talking about the advantages of communism over capitalism, and the ship is stopped.
Stranded on a rocky island in the Mediterranean, the surviving passengers are left at the mercy of Abigail (Dolly de Leon), one of the Filipino cruise ship cleaners. Only she can hunt, make fire, and keep things in their place, and Abigail is all too willing to use this helpful social face to her advantage.
Ostlund's eccentric satire is not subtle and has been widely criticized in some circles, especially in America, where excessive wealth has gone untouched.
But it's also super funny in the dark, and the scene on the ship being in the middle of a storm is both hilarious and disgusting.
Rating: four stars
