Movie review: Chastain, Redmayne give strong performances, but 'The Good Nurse' ails from lack of thrills

Oct. 27—If you happened to have gotten sucked into Danish filmmaker Tobias Lindholm's excellent 2020 miniseries "The Investigation" (available on HBO Max), you may have appreciated the patience and steady hand he employs in the telling of its story.

Those attributes are on display again in "The Good Nurse," Lindholm's first English-language film, which already is in select theaters and debuts on Netflix this week.

Like "The Investigation," "The Good Nurse" is based on a true story, this one about a serial killer and chronicled in Charles Graeber's book of the same name.

Unfortunately, this film isn't nearly as engrossing, despite solid performances from its leads, Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain. After a first hour that does, in fact, suck you in, "The Good Nurse" sputters through a second that offers only minor moments of intrigue and tension.

Ultimately, it tries to engage the viewer as a character study. The problem with that is it's a study of Chastain's Amy Loughren, a single mother of two with a serious heart condition that makes her work as a nurse difficult. "The Good Nurse" would be more interesting were it able to dig deeper into Redmayne's Charles Cullen, a seemingly kind and empathetic nurse whom Amy befriends and even comes to depend upon — until she begins to suspect him of killing patients.

Because of Amy's condition, she struggles to adjust the position of a bedridden patient, leaving the task so out of breath that she needs to sneak behind a curtain to recover in privacy. She won't get health insurance until she spends several more months on the job, meaning she can't have an expensive procedure or even take medical leave for the time being, and she pays hefty bills out of pocket.

Enter Charlie, new to the hospital and landing late-night shifts in the ICU along with Amy. The two quickly hit it off, and after she confides in him about her situation, he promises to make her life easier at work.

"I can help you," he says. "You're going to be OK."

He even starts hanging out with Amy and her girls, a handful at ages 5 and 9, and they instantly take to him, as well.

However, at the hospital, the death of a woman in the ICU months ago has drawn the interest in a pair of police detectives, Tim Braun (Noah Emmerich, "The Americans") and Danny Baldwin (Nnamdi Asomugha, the former Philadelphia Eagles defensive back who co-starred in 2020's "Sophie's Love"). They're being stonewalled by those representing the interests of the hospital, such as Linda Garran (Kim Dickens), a nurse-turned-administrator.

As more suspicious deaths happen, though, and after Amy learns more of Charlie's employment history, she decides to talk to the detectives — even though doing so without a hospital representative present could lead to her termination.

Penned by Krysty Wilson-Cairns, a co-writer of "1917" and "Last Night in Soho," "The Good Nurse" has all the ingredients for a juicy thriller — at least if she and Lindholm were willing to play a little faster and looser with the facts. They don't seem to be, however, and so we only worry so much for Amy's safety and employment.

As portrayed by Chastain ("Zero Dark Thirty," "The Eyes of Tammy Faye")," Amy is easy to identify with and root for, but that's as far as it goes.

And in the hands of fellow Academy Award winner Redmayne ("The Theory of Everything," "The Danish Girl") Charlie could be an engrossing figure with, perhaps, a bit more speculation on the part of those bringing him to life here. As it stands, the likely killer is but mildly interesting.

That's a good way to sum up "The Good Nurse," as well.

Lindholm, whose credits include well-received Danish films "A Hijacking" (2012) and "A War" (2015) certainly knows how to construct scenes that work. It's just surprising they don't add up to a greater whole in "The Good Nurse."

Really, there is nothing you can slam the movie for beyond an increasing case of dullness. Still, that's a flaw that may prove fatal for some viewers.

Will Carpenter is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's Arts and Entertainment/Features Reporter. He can be reached by email at wcarpenter@wyomingnews.com or by phone at 307-633-3135. Follow him on Twitter @will_carp_.