The Good Nurse
Netflix | Release Date: October 19, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
13
Negative:
1
Watch Now
Stream On

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
ObserverRex ReedOct 27, 2022
This film is a prime example of how thrilling it can be when two extraordinarily gifted artists pool their resources to turn a routine thriller into a memorable work of art. Read full review
91
Original-CinKaren GordonOct 19, 2022
Bolstered by superb performances by two Oscar-winning actors, director Tobias Lindholm’s The Good Nurse is a subdued, elegantly made true crime film about how a heinous crime spree was brought to an end. Read full review
90
Screen DailyWendy IdeSep 14, 2022
This superbly acted thriller – Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne both shine – is every bit as textured and knotty as [Lindholm's] previous work. Read full review
83
ColliderRoss BonaimeOct 26, 2022
The Good Nurse is a shocking drama that seeps under your skin with its ferocity and terror. Yet Lindholm makes this story about a disturbing individual into a film about how important kindness and consideration for others can mean in the larger scheme of things. Read full review
83
Paste MagazineAurora AmidonOct 25, 2022
Once The Good Nurse establishes that something undeniably fishy is going on, it quickly cascades into a perfect amalgam of a tense detective thriller starring dubious officers Danny Baldwin (Nnamdi Asomugha) and Tim Braun (Noah Emmerich), a gut-wrenching psychological drama, and a staggering showcase for Chastain and Redmayne, who deliver two of the finest performances of the year. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattOct 19, 2022
It feels like a faint insult to say that The Good Nurse could be a premium-cable product from long ago, one of those lightly prestige-y Sunday-night movies Showtime or HBO used to make. But it's also one crafted with sturdy, consummate skill, burnished by two Oscar winners who don't stint on their performances just because most people will end up seeing Nurse on a small screen. Read full review
80
The AtlanticShirley LiNov 4, 2022
Few modern true-crime movies and shows remind viewers that they have as much responsibility over their own choices as the people onscreen do. That message may be uncomfortable to absorb, but it’s far more productive than luxuriating in disturbing acts. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeyOct 29, 2022
Lindholm’s stealthy restraint fits the material like a glove, and both get under your skin. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonOct 27, 2022
Isolated brilliance is precisely what helps The Good Nurse shine, and it could hardly be otherwise given the story. Read full review
80
EmpireCatherine BrayOct 25, 2022
A tense true crime thriller that avoids schlock horror tropes in favour of a welcome focus on the environment that allowed one of America’s worst serial killers to operate freely for years. Read full review
80
IGNRyan LestonOct 17, 2022
The Good Nurse shines a light on the inherent darkness of a for-profit healthcare system while exploring the even darker recesses that allow a serial killer to thrive. Based on a true story, it’s a terrifying examination of systemic failures, not to mention a wild cover-up from self-interested hospitals. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeOct 17, 2022
The film’s elegant framing and unobtrusive directorial choices give space for Chastain and Redmayne to fully inhabit their characters in a picture that combines compassion and empathy with a sickening swell of almost unbearable tension. Read full review
80
Time OutPhil de SemlyenOct 5, 2022
Redmayne is up there with Richard Attenborough in 10 Rillington Place as a terrifyingly mundane embodiment of evil. Read full review
80
VarietyTomris LafflySep 14, 2022
What lingers most about it is a sense of selfless compassion, the kind that Amy possesses when she painfully reminds herself of the good buried within inexplicable evil. Watching her try to summon that good makes for a quietly devastating finale, one that’s thoroughly earned by the soulful film that precedes it. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeSep 14, 2022
A true-crime picture whose chilling effects are generated without a whiff of the manipulation that often comes with such films. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJocelyn NoveckOct 25, 2022
To the filmmakers’ credit, they don’t manufacture a motivation where there wasn’t one. There’s no need. The unembellished horror of this real-life tale is way more than enough. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 18, 2022
In the hands of the Danish director Tobias Lindholm and screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns (“1917,” “Last Night in Soho”) and thanks in large part to the towering twin performances of the equally chameleon-like Chastain and Redmayne, The Good Nurse is a solid albeit conventional medical thriller that overcomes a few plodding stretches and ends in bittersweet fashion. Read full review
75
TheWrapFran HoepfnerSep 14, 2022
If The Good Nurse is about anything, it’s about dedication and stoic compassion, rather than a headstrong sense of morality, and the film, like its protagonist, is all the better for that. Read full review
70
We Got This CoveredScott CampbellOct 24, 2022
The Good Nurse may focus on someone believed to be one of the most prolific serial killers in history, but the smartest decision the dramatic thriller makes is shying away from the sensationalism of harrowing real-life events. Read full review
67
ConsequenceSam RosenbergOct 27, 2022
For what it’s worth, Chastain and Redmayne make for an interesting on-screen duo, with both award-winning actors inhabiting roles that service their talents nicely. But by keeping us emotionally at arm’s length, The Good Nurse doesn’t actualize its dramatic potential to the fullest degree, relying mainly on the power of its stars to carry the story instead of building a much more intricate, immersive story around them. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubCourtney HowardOct 18, 2022
Feeling like a well-balanced cross between an investigative procedural like Spotlight and ’90s-era chillers like The Hand That Rocks The Cradle where a seemingly harmless helper disguises their sinister self, the filmmakers have created a strong throwback thriller. Read full review
67
IndieWireKate ErblandSep 14, 2022
It’s a nifty fit for the Danish filmmaker behind similarly cold-blooded dramas like “A War” and “A Highjacking,” who establishes a sense of unease from the film’s opening moments and never quite relents. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 9, 2022
Lindholm’s patience with this material kind of outlasts ours. There needs to be more flesh on the bone to justify the two hour running time. The dead spots show. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyOct 25, 2022
The Good Nurse is at its best as a medical police procedural. It helps that Noah Emmerich and Nnamdi Asomugha, playing the cops, give solid, understated performances. Read full review
60
NMEPaul BradshawNov 2, 2022
Turning an awful true story about a serial killer into an awful true story about the system that let it happen, The Good Nurse is an important lesson for anyone who tries to package Cullen’s crimes too neatly. Better still though, it gives us one of Chastain’s best performances; one of the year’s most believable superheroes. Read full review
60
The New York TimesAmy NicholsonOct 27, 2022
In the judgment of the film, Cullen is just a side effect of an institutional cancer. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawOct 20, 2022
Perhaps the film could have got under Charlie’s bland surface more. A creepily watchable drama nonetheless. Read full review
60
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaSep 14, 2022
The Good Nurse is strangely flat. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeSep 14, 2022
The Good Nurse remains a good, if not ultimately great, attempt to tell the story of a very bad person. Read full review
58
The PlaylistCharles BramescoSep 14, 2022
Both stars were evidently tempted by the promise of a “meaty role,” taking that concept to mean one that entails a lot of acting instead of complex acting. As the intrigue builds, both characters lose the multi-dimensionality that should be growing deeper and richer, reduced from individuals working within a system they must also oppose to a more basic cat-and-mouse dynamic. Read full review
50
TimeStephanie ZacharekOct 27, 2022
Though it works hard to make us believe it’s really a social statement about hospitals’ lack of scruples...its garden-variety true-crime roots are painfully visible. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 26, 2022
In a streaming series spread out over four or six hours, this might have offered compelling content (and certainly would have seemed less rushed) but, in its current format, it’s more frustrating than satisfying and the facile ending doesn’t hit the right spot. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 17, 2022
Together, the two actors build a rapport that goes beyond the dialogue and justifies where the story ultimately goes. Anyway, that’s the paradox in “The Good Nurse,” which potential viewers must sort out for themselves: The performances are worth seeing, but the movie isn’t. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineMark HansonSep 19, 2022
For a while, the work on the part of the performers is nuanced enough to distract us from the film’s implausibilities. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoSep 12, 2022
I like these actors. I just wish they were in a better movie. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangOct 26, 2022
What it isn’t is especially insightful or memorable. Just because evil is banal doesn’t mean a movie has to be. Read full review
40
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiSep 26, 2022
It's a run-of-the-mill crime drama that doesn't stand out. Read full review
37
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanOct 18, 2022
Redmayne ultimately fails to crack the secret of what made this man — er, this monster — tick. But that’s not really the biggest mystery that hangs over “Nurse.” Rather, it is the question of why all these power players thought something this slight, this weightless, this forgettable was ever worth their time. Read full review
More From This Movie

65 Critic Reviews

6.5 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL