Meurtres sans ordonnance

Overworked nurse Amy Loughren befriends new team addition Charles Cullen, no sooner does he arrive on the ward, do the number of early deaths start increasing.

Such a chilling story, I have seen and read info about the case before, so I had an idea of what to expect, credit to the writing and production team for keeping it realistic, at no time did it feel as though it had been sensationalised or over dramatised.

What's more chilling, the actual crimes, or the stonewalling? It saddens me to think of healthcare as a business, but sadly that's what it is, the way he was allowed to move from job to job, I hope those that facilitated this struggle to live with themselves, they effectively enabled him to kill.

Well paced, dramatic, definitely chilling, for a long film it passed by quickly.

Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne were both terrific in their respective roles, two genuinely sincere and believable performances, Charles Cullen was portrayed as someone you'd trust, someone kind, caring, but deadly.

8/10.

To me the standout of this film were the performances. But first looking at the movie itself it was a slow build up in the first half hour till charles comes onto the scene. I'm not sure though this film works as a thriller or mystery its more of a dark drama and if labeled as such would be better understood. But as based on real life films go this does at atleast do the job and is still an interesting watch. Eddie redmayne playes charlie, the nurse the film is about. He comes off as creepy and off putting making it a great role that he filled well. The same goes for jessica chastaine as amy, the other nurse who suspects something is up after a pateints death. Her performances is just as good and both are really good. Overall an interesting film to watch. Little slow in places but overall ok.

Surprisingly captivating film. Really. You should not be fooled. If you didn't read any overview about this film prior to watching it, you'll think this is a a feel-good film because of the title. But it's a veritable thriller.

The first part of the film reminds you of the great work that nurses do. Nursing is a difficult, tiresome and, sometimes, thankless job but being a good nurse is more than a job, it's a calling. Particularly at the height of the COVID pandemic.

What's distinctive about this film is that it forces you to ask a lot of questions, frantic "what if" questions. That's how tight the storyline is and how director Lundholm succeeds in keeping you on tenterhooks. Sixteen minutes to the closing credits and the viewer still doesn't have a clue as to how it will end.

The two lead actors are wonderful. Eddie Reymayne is consistently a good actor and his performance here is par for the course. He is sinister here in a quiet way which makes him appear to the viewer as more dangerous. And Jessica Chastein embodies the qualities of a good nurse in Amy but she'll rise to the occasion when it's needed.

Watch it. You'd feel relieved when it ends.

Eddie Redmayne is just effortlessly portraying a wide variety of characters but not nearly as many as I would like to see. His performances are always outstanding and this performance to date is my favourite for Best Actor. Eddie and Jessica carry what seems to be a not so thorough look on the serial killer that is Charles Cullen. Very basic and shocking story carried by a powerful lead performance. I recently just finished Dahmer and this was the perfect come down from what was one of the most thorough portrayals of a seriel killer I've seen on television. Highly recommend The Good Nurse and a solid 8/10 from me.

Set in 2003 at Parkfield Memorial Hospital, Amy Loughren (Jessica Chastain) is a single mother with two daughters working as night nurse in the ICU who suffers from a heart condition but is without Health Insurance and must continue working long hours while keeping it a secret for the next few months before she's qualified for insurance. The hospital is soon joined by nurse Charles "Charlie" Cullen (Eddie Redmayne) who strikes up a friendship with Amy and even helps her during her cardiac episodes at his own expense. However when the death of a patient is put under internal review by Parkfield's risk mitigator, Linda Garran (Kim Dickens), the hospital brings in homicide detectives Danny Baldwin (Nmamdi Asomugha) and Tim Braun (Noah Emmerich), per the directives of the CDC for suspicious hospital deaths but are massively uncooperative only bringing them in 8 weeks after their internal review and with the body already released to the family and cremated. However, when Braun and Baldwin begin examining Charlie's history, they come to believe he may have been involved in the death as does Amy.

The Good Nurse is an adaptation of the 2013 true crime book, The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder by Charles Graeber that details serial killer Charles Cullen. While originally setup at Lionsgate, Lionsgate eventually decided they would no longer be involved and rights to the film were picked up by Netflix. The film is the English language debut for Danish director Tobias Lindholm whose previous credits such as A Hijacking and A War have earned Lindholm considerable acclaim and the latter even scoring Academy Award nominations. With all those elements it's pretty obvious Netflix intends for this to be an awards contender for the Fall movie season and I think this is an undeniably strong prestige piece.

The Good Nurse features some terrific turns by reliable staples Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne who both feel really at home in their roles. Redmayne is really good as Charlie and while he does capture that coldness you expect during the very few death scenes that are actually on display in the film, the movie looks at Charlie in between those scenes with his genuinely concerned and nurturing attitude he carries towards Amy setting up the tragedy of this situation as the early scenes between him and Chastain almost make you forget for a moment who he is. The movie doesn't frame this situation as a thriller and avoids being exploitative with no lingering on death scenes and sidestepping some of the tropes of lesser serial killer films by framing the story as one of systemic buck passing that allowed Charlie to move from hospital to hospital and no action ever taken to prevent him from continuing for fear it would open these hospitals to lawsuits. The movie's very much an inditement on the nature of the healthcare industry complete with the dramatic irony (that was unfortunately true to life) of Amy being a nurse who can't afford treatment for herself. Jessica Chastain is really good in the role of Amy Loughren and she sells her performance against Redmayne quite effectively. Tobias Lindholm's direction of the film is also quite strong and with its more naturalistic filmmaking style it avoids making itself feel like a TV procedural or thriller by keeping focus on the human element.

The Good Nurse is a fantastic English language debut for Lindholm and continues the strong work for Chastain and Redmayne. I highly recommend this film and not just to true crime enthusiasts.