Like so many true-crime tales, it’s a story too gruesome to believe. Over a 16-year career, a male nurse murders his patients by administering lethal doses of insulin and other drugs. He works at nine different hospitals and kills over 40 patients (and possibly up to 400) until a co-worker finally catches him. It’s crazy, but it’s all too real, and it’s the basis of “The Good Nurse,” coming to Netflix this Fall.
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Eddie Redmayne stars as serial killer Charles Cullen in the upcoming film alongside Jessica Chastain as Amy Loughren, the co-worker and friend who eventually helped authorities catch him. Based on Charles Graeber‘s 2013 book, “The Good Nurse: A True Story About Medicine, Mayhem, and Murder,” Netflix’s rendition of the events is true-crime with a twist. Instead of a lurid, sensationalized portrait of a murderer, like so many of the streamer’s docs, “The Good Nurse” director Tobias Lindholm prefers a more humane approach. “When I read the book, I realized that it wasn’t just another serial-killer movie,” Lindholm told Vanity Fair, “It was a portrayal of a system that didn’t stop the serial killer, and the nurse who did.”
At first glance, the Danish director’s follow-up to 2020’s “Another Round” looks like an anomaly in his filmography. However, Lindholm has wanted to adapt “The Good Nurse” with Redmayne and Chastain since 2016, except scheduling conflicts kept getting in the way. Both actors agreed to wait until Lindholm was free to make the movie, and Chastain believes no other director could bring the same sensitivity to the source material. “You see it with his series “The Investigation,” [Lindholm’s six-part miniseries about the death of Swedish journalist Kim Wall] the way he handles these stories—it’s with the utmost dignity and decency for everyone involved,” Chastain said to Vanity Fair.
Lending a serial killer’s story dignity and decency is a tall order, but that’s what makes “The Good Nurse” such an intriguing upcoming film. “We had to remind ourselves that everybody was human at any given point, and we did not want to be fascinated with the crimes,” Lindholm continued. “I think that was the most difficult part, to maintain the thriller aspect and make it entertaining and thrilling and, at the same time, truthful and human.” And Chastain and Redmayne did their part to bring that humanity to the movie’s forefront. Not only did both actors read Graeber’s book, but they also went to an equivalent of nursing school to prepare for their roles. They also studied video footage of their real-life counterparts, mimicking their posture and vocal cadence in the film.
Too many true-crime tales, whether they are documentaries, fiction films, or even podcasts, focus too much on their stories’ violent, depraved elements. “The Good Nurse” may be an antidote to such depictions: a thriller steeped in dark, disturbing realities, but told with a measured and humane focus.
“The Good Nurse” premieres on Netflix this Fall. Check out first-look photos from the film below.
