Netflix rarely disappoints with its dark documentaries and true crime dramas, but that's not the only reason that their upcoming true crime drama The Good Nurse is a highly anticipated watch. As well as starring the Academy-Award-winning Jessica Chastain, who won the Best Actress award for her portrayal of Tammy Faye Bakker in 'The Eyes Of Tammy Faye', what's most interesting about The Good Nurse is that this tension-packed thriller is based on a chilling true story.
What Is The Good Nurse About?
The Good Nurse follows Amy Loughren, played by Chastain — a single mother and a nurse with a life-threatening heart condition who works the night shift with colleague Charlie Cullen, who's portrayed by The Danish Girl and Fantastic Beasts actor Eddie Redmayne.
Soon a series of patient deaths sparks an investigation, and Amy Loughren becomes suspicious of her new colleague Cullen. Loughren risks everything to uncover the truth about Cullen.
Both Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne, perhaps like most people, knew nothing about Charlie Cullen or the real-life hero that Amy Loughren is when they received their scripts for the movie.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Chastain was honored to "amplify [Loughren] and her story and her courage" whilst Redmayne dove into Graeber's book to learn more about Loughren's story.
Charles Graeber Wrote Cullen's Story
The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder is the true-crime book that Netflix has adapted, and how the story became a book is fascinating in itself.
Graeber met the real Charlie Cullen when writing an article about the serial killer after he (Cullen) was approached to donate one of his kidneys to the brother of an ex-girlfriend.
As Graeber wrote the article which is titled The Tainted Kidney, according to Graeber, Cullen became the only journalist that Cullen would speak to.
Eventually, Graeber learned more of Cullen's story and turned it into a book, one that highlights the failings of the hospitals which inadvertently provided protection and allowed Cullen to keep killing patients for sixteen years.
Now, Cullen's story will be told through Netflix, for all the world to see and for everyone to know what he did — but he will not be the focal point, and rightly so.
Instead, viewers will see how an incredibly brave nurse uncovered the truth and took a monster down, a mission that put both herself and her children at unimaginable risk.
Who Is The Real Amy Loughren?
In his book, Charles Graeber unveils the identity of a confidential informant, Amy Loughren, a nurse who worked with Charlie Cullen.
She was a nurse at Sommerset who provided files from the hospital to two detectives who contacted her about a series of patient deaths and a "suspicious levels of a heart drug called digoxin in their systems."
As a confidential informant, the real Loughren even wore a wire and spoke to Cullen in the interrogation room; both were attempts to get Charlie Cullen to confess.
In November 2003, Amy Loughren discovered how her coworker was picking and killing his victims. According to Graeber's book, Loughren discovered that Cullen was ordering medication usually used in a cardiac unit, despite him working in intensive care, and was consistently ordering a long list of these drugs.
"His orders emptied the supply drawers," Graeber wrote in his book. "Then, time and time again, Charlie ordered a restock from the pharmacy. His position meant he’d be the first to take the delivery. At the time, he was seen as being helpful. Now Amy wasn’t so sure."
When Will The Good Nurse Be Released?
Finally, a lot more people will know about Loughren's story and learn of the breathtakingly brave service she performed as a confidential informant, taking down a monster who is known as one of America's most prolific serial killers.
Expect Netflix's upcoming true crime drama to be nail-bitingly tense and perhaps in some places a difficult, emotionally draining watch as viewers see Chastain bring to life the emotion and stakes behind what Loughren did, and witness Redmayne portray the cold and shockingly evil way in which Cullen ended the lives of so many patients who would have been in his care and trusted him.
The Good Nurse will undoubtedly hit the number one spot in the Netflix movie charts when it arrives on the streaming platform. The Good Nurse begins streaming on Netflix on October 26th, 2022.
