Amy Loughren (Jessica Chastain) is a dedicated nurse and single mother of two daughters. Trying to hide her heart condition from her employer long enough to be entitled to health insurance she is very grateful to hear that another experienced nurse will be joining her shift pattern to lighten the load. Charlie Cullen (Eddie Redmayne) is a veteran of multiple hospitals and becomes fast friends with Amy. The issue is that the reason he has been at so many hospitals is that patients tend to die at a much higher rate whilst in his care. 

When detectives Danny Baldwin (Nnamdi Asomugha) and Tim Braun (Noah Emmerich) are called in to investigate one such death they find themselves blocked by hospital administrators and lawyers. Turning to the innate goodness inside of Amy they begin to make progress in a devastating case. 

The Good Nurse is based on a true story and focuses on events that took place in 2003. Backed up with a fairly expansive write up in its final scenes it tells an horrific story of cold hearted murder allowed to take place within the confines of an industry run for profit. 

There are moments when The Good Nurse is the kind of based on true story procedural where you can really get your teeth into a good weighty drama. But there are also moments where it just seems to meander through its difficult story. It’s a worthy film with some good performances but it never ignites as something truly special cinematically. 

Chastain is typically excellent and always makes films worth watching. And whilst Redmayne is fine the true wonder is how good his agent must be to get him equal billing with Chastain. Elsewhere Asomugha makes the detective plot an intriguing watch. 

Overall though this feels like one of this years on paper Oscar hopefuls that no one will remember next year that at best could pull a surprise acting nomination.