Review: Jessica Chastain is good as ‘The Good Nurse,’ but Eddie Redmayne is bad as the bad nurse. [Linda Holmes]
At first, it was a bit of a let down. Eddie Redmayne, arguably the finest actor of his generation, had a large role cast in The Theory of Everything (a movie that was a joy to watch). Then, they cast Jessica Chastain to play an android. She was good. She made some wonderful choices in her performance. She was perfect. But then, a character that she played, which was based on a real-life doctor, was written beautifully, she became the villain and was essentially “a complete jerk.” She was an “utterly unlikable character,” which is the last thing any actress wants to be. It’s not that Eddie Redmayne was bad in the role. He was excellent. But the role was written as his worst nightmare, as someone that he must play as he sees him. It’s a role that doesn’t exist in real life. The good nurse’s role is not the point. The point is that it’s impossible to not have empathy for a doctor who would do that to a patient. In the book, in the real life version, the nurse was completely human and not a robot. She has her own humanity and flaws that she developed through trials and tribulations. That’s fine as the story goes. But that’s the point. This wasn’t a movie about Eddie Redmayne as the actor portraying the character of the good doctor. It was a movie about Eddie Redmayne doing what he always does on his best day, and it was a let down to see him do that. The other movie in which he had a role was The Theory of Everything, though. That movie is a great movie. But he did a bad job. He was a bad actor. You can’t blame him. He didn’t feel the same way about his character. Jessica Chastain is a wonderful actress. She works very hard to do her