'The Good Nurse' review: Jessica Chastain excels in mediocre thriller

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Jessica Chastain stars opposite Eddie Redmayne in "The Good Nurse," an adaptation of a nonfiction book from 2013 about Charles Cullen, a serial killer whose victims were patients while he worked as a nurse.

Chastain plays Amy Loughren, an ICU nurse who suffers from a serious heart condition but can't go out on leave yet because she hasn't been on the job long enough for health insurance. She's assigned to the overnight shift at her New Jersey hospital and her stress gets only compounded by the pressures that come with supporting her two young daughters as a single mom.

Suddenly, a new colleague shows up: It's Charlie (Redmayne), who seems to be a kind and decent person, taking an immediate interest in befriending Amy and her children. But then patients start dying unexpectedly, the police get involved and Amy finds herself reconsidering everything she thought she knew about her pal.

The Netflix movie is directed by Tobias Lindholm ("Another Round") and written by Krysty Wilson-Cairns ("1917"). It co-stars Nnamdi Asomugha and Noah Emmerich as the detectives on the case.

MY SAY There's one big reason to see "The Good Nurse" above all others and that's Chastain. After several years spent attached to projects either beneath her talent level or demanding excessive scenery chewing ("The Eyes of Tammy Faye"), this movie offers a top-notch actor the chance to fully delve into a complicated character.

The star captures something authentic about living with a chronic illness. While a lesser actor might play this part in a way that allowed for the character to be defined by her health struggles, Chastain makes them feel ever-present, but firmly in the background.

Her Amy is a kind, empathetic person — great at her difficult job, a devoted mother, doing everything she can to make a better future for her patients, her daughters and herself. She's no different from the rest of us, in her own way. But the condition looms above it all, flaring up at the worst possible moments, amid stern doctor's warnings about an impending medical catastrophe.

Sadly, "The Good Nurse" lands squarely within the familiar realm of the serial killer thriller subgenre. It loses a lot of interest when the focus shifts to the police investigation and efforts to catch the meticulously careful Charlie in the act.

Redmayne plays the part with a purposeful banality that makes it incredibly obvious that Charlie is doing exactly what he seems to be doing, in the exact way he seems to be doing it.

It's a credit to Chastain's performance, to its mix of strength and desperation, that the actors develop a convincing friendship, because her co-star is effectively a blank slate.

There are efforts made to broaden the scope of the story by contextualizing Charlie's actions within the framework of cover-ups by hospitals afraid of liability, but those barely register.

The focus all lands back on Chastain, who gives such a compelling and deeply human performance, so effortlessly charismatic, that you wish she had been the center of a completely different movie.

BOTTOM LINE This is a mediocre thriller with an affecting, naturalistic drama headlined by Jessica Chastain just waiting to bust out.