ne may assume that the story of the most prolific serial killer in history has already been the subject of several podcasts, documentaries and many a mini-series. But Charlie Cullen has largely been absent from the overall crime genre. In Netflix’s most recent film, The Good Nurse, the serial killer is unmasked. The Netflix original, directed by Tobias Lindholm and written by 1917 and Last Night in Soho co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns, evokes fear, horror and frustration in its audience.

Cullen was a silent killer who poisoned patients using intravenous tubes between the 1990s and 2000s. He killed at least 29 people while working as a nurse, though officials estimate that number to be closer to 400. Given that his crimes are dispersed, his victim count is unknown, and his motivations are obscure, narrating his story is far from simple.His character is portrayed by Eddie Redmayne as a new employee at a New Jersey hospital during the early 2000s, at the tail end of his killing spree. Amy (Jessica Chastain), a haggard single mother working night shifts and trying to conceal her cardiomyopathy, is teamed up with him.

We begin to understand that this is all a part of a bigger picture as the film paints a gloomy and detailed portrait of Amy’s condition and the struggle it takes to obtain and afford medical help. The movie is a critique of the complex healthcare system. Amy needs to work there for a year before she can obtain health insurance via her employment. The doctor — who charges her $980 for a test and consultation— may warn her that working in her state could result in death, but she is left with little choice as she is a few months short of that milestone.

When Charlie enters the ward, he brings with him a divine reprieve in the form of someone to help Amy through the night shifts and cover for her recurrent attacks. The two get along well at work and outside of it, with Charlie winning over Amy and her two girls. Charlie respects her health secret, nurses her with care and even steals medication from the hospital for her. But as Amy’s patients begin passing away under her watch, she chooses to work with the police, especially when it becomes evident that the hospital would stop at nothing to protect its reputation in the face of mounting ‘medical negligence’. She begins to question who she is friends with when there is a probe into an unexplained death.

Amy and Charlie take centre stage as the focus narrows. It is rather frustrating to see the horrific details of Charlie’s early childhood kept a secret in order to preserve the mystery and prevent overdosing on trauma. It would have been more intriguing if Redmayne were to be able to perform more than just create an eerie presence in this film.

Initially, the film rightfully focuses less on Charlie himself and more on the institution that has been sheltering him. It is revealed that even if individuals in high positions were aware of misconduct at this or earlier institutions, doing so would require them to accept responsibility, with everything coming back to the greenbacks, alias dollars. This is demonstrated after a patient dies and the hospital reluctantly summons in detectives (played by Nnamdi Asomugha and Noah Emmerich), seven weeks later, to investigate. As an evasive risk manager, Kim Dickens, a highlight, perfectly captures the cold, corporate image of Charlie’s newest hospital. Her dialogue with the detectives, who are both perplexed by their circumstances, has a brilliant crackling.

Amy and Charlie take centre stage as the focus narrows. It is rather frustrating to see the horrific details of Charlie’s early childhood kept a secret in order to preserve the mystery and prevent overdosing on trauma. It would have been more intriguing if Redmayne were to be able to perform more than just create an eerie presence in this film. The narrative constrains him too much to do more than that, so he must take a back seat to Amy. When it comes to Amy, it is minimalism that is cleverly used here for someone whose life is more concerned with those around her than it is with her own emotional state and well-being. When her feelings do surface and events force her to confront terror in a way she typically does not give herself time for, they still do so subtly but in a devastating way. Particularly moving is the final scene in which she must fight her tears. It is one of Chastain's better performances.

The ultimate showdown between the two falls short of expectations since Charlie merely admits to his actions without providing any explanation. Due to the way the narrative is structured, we are left wanting. The Good Nurse is still a commendable, if not quite outstanding, attempt to tell the tale of a bad nurse. While it does well as a crime drama, it falls short as a crime thriller. The narrative does very little to investigate the serial killer’s psyche. It would have been better if Charlie’s atrocities and past were further explored.

The writer is a  freelance contributor