Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne’s serial killer movie ‘Good Nurse’ examines U.S. health care system
Jessica Chastain is seen onscreen for the first time as a nurse delivering care to a man in ‘Good Nurse’ (Photo: Everett Collection)
Jessica Chastain made her name in Hollywood while honing her acting chops as a nurse in ‘Midnight Express,’ but she’s turned her attention to health care, in the form of Good Nurse, which opened in limited release Wednesday.
Chastain’s lead role in this coming-of-age drama centers on Sarah Stone, a nurse with no training at all who gives a young boy with special health needs a helping hand in the form of a home hospice. But, Chastain tells Variety, the whole experience of being a good nurse can be a painful one — and the film makes an effective, honest examination of the effects that a failed system has on the lives of those who work in it.
Chastain and director Jennifer Morrison’s movie is based on a novel by Susan Straight, and the two had previously worked together on the HBO miniseries “The Hour,” which had a similar, if not identical, look.
“Well, I’ve always felt like she is an excellent storyteller, and she has a great way of bringing emotion to her roles and to her characters,” Chastain tells Variety. “That was part of the draw for me, just the way that she has made the characters very human as well.”
Chastain, whose career to date has mostly been in romantic-drama fare, says that she’s found that the more challenging that role was, the better she was able to grasp it.
“I think the more difficult you make it for yourself so you are more clear about what you’re about, and I think in an artistic way, there is more room for you to understand what someone like Sarah is going through and how to take it. So, I have been really lucky in my career to find that a great degree of comfort in these challenging roles.”
Morrison, who has also directed the Sundance hit “Mudbound,�
