LONDON: The trailer for Tobias Lindholm’s creepy drama makes no attempt to hide the grisly story at the heart of “The Good Nurse” — an adaptation of Charles Graeber’s true-crime book of the same name. In fact, from the outset of this Netflix movie, it is very clear what is going on, and the dramatic tension comes instead from exactly how long it will take for the main cast to catch up.
Single parent Amy Loughren (Jessica Chastain) struggles to balance raising her daughters with her stressful job as an intensive care unit nurse in a New Jersey hospital. A steadily worsening heart condition only makes her life harder, so when a new nurse joins the team, not only lightening the load but becoming a much-needed friend, Amy cannot quite believe her luck. But very quickly, suspicion around Charles Cullen (Eddie Redmayne) begins to build when a series of unexplained deaths occur on the unit, and state police begin making inquiries into his background.
Watching “A Good Nurse” is a conflicting experience. On the one hand, it is an expertly directed, fantastically acted character piece with a cast at the top of their game. Chastain and Redmayne are utterly captivating, while Nnamdi Asomugha and Noah Emmerich are superb backup as the two lead detectives.
But at the same time, the knowledge that these events really happened (and that many opportunities to end Cullen’s spree were missed) is so bone-chillingly frightening that watching the movie becomes a truly harrowing experience. Lindholm skillfully marches us through Cullen’s downfall — the drama here comes not from figuring out whether he is doing it (we know that he did) and whether he will get caught (we know that he will) but from how long it will take everyone else to realize they are chasing one of the US’ most prolific serial killers.
Redmayne draws the most praise for his chillingly charming portrayal of Cullen, a performance that ranks among the British actor’s best. Chastain, too, has rarely been more engaging. But at the back of your mind will be a level of terror no fictional story can ever hope to match simply because they cannot lay claim to those horrifying five words: Based on a true story.