Directed by : Tobias Lindholm 

Why ?
They didn't stop me.

Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain in a still from 'The Good Nurse'

Spoilers ahead... 


Amy Loughren (Jessica Chastain), a single mother with 2 daughters works at the Parkfield Memorial Hospital as a night nurse in ICU. She has a heart condition but can't let anyone at hospital know or she will lose the insurance she badly needs. When Charlie Cullen (Eddie Redmayne) joins her as the male nurse, they form a good friendship but she isn't aware of Charlie's past and what kind of person he actually is until some patients begin to die. 

If you are told the basic premise and the true events on which the film is based then it would bring a very chilling effect just to think how dangerous your life can be even when you are safely in the doctor's hands just because a male nurse wants to kill you for no reason at all. He was charged for 29, but it is believed that he actually killed around 400 patients. Also, you can't help but think how poor the health system is if they allowed this guy to shift jobs from one hospital to another 9 times. 

In the film however, this feeling never comes across fully as I felt it should have. We do get some great scenes involving both Jessica and Eddie (who are really good in their performances), but they never culminate into more than that. There's always a creepy kind of feeling hanging whenever we see Charlie come into the frame especially after the moment Amy learns his truth. Or how afraid suddenly Amy feels when Charlie is at her home with her daughters. I liked both the confrontation scenes, one at the restaurant and other in jail, though I still don't understand why he did it or maybe we will never know.

One reason for the slow pace of movie could be to set up the moody feel while showing the life of a nurse at hospital. I still would had preferred tight editing, some scenes just meander along way too long serving no purpose. 

If like me you had never heard about Charlie Cullen, then 'The Good Nurse' is going to be worth a watch as you realize that such kind of 'serial killer' (if I can call that) exists too. Despite a weak screenplay and loose editing, the story and performances make up for it to some extent. 

My Rating : 6/10