true crime thriller “Good Nurse” Ultimately it is an indictment of the American system. A hospital who turned a blind eye to the brutality of Charles Cullen, a nurse who admitted to killing 29 patients and may have killed dozens more as he quietly moved from job to job . and the interlocking demands for employment and medical benefits that hampered fellow nurse Amy Lauren, who ultimately helped bring Karen to justice.
Adapted from a non-fiction book by Charles Graber, The Good Nurse is another film that wouldn’t exist without another American system: Hollywood. Its stars include two Oscar winners, Eddie Redmayne as Karen and Jessica Chastain as Lauren, which Netflix will release on its streaming service on Wednesday.
It is Danish screenwriter and filmmaker Tobias Lindholm’s first English-language film, and ‘The Good Nurse’ may be familiar to many viewers already. likely to be seen by the widest American audience ever.
The 45-year-old has seen many of his films and TV series seamlessly enter the American market without sacrificing the artistic sensibilities he grew up with.These projects include political television series “Bogen” what he wrote. The life-affirming drama “Another Round,” which he co-wrote with director Thomas Winterberg.procedural mini series “Investigation,” which he wrote and directed.
Lindholm has always watched Hollywood cautiously. In a recent video conversation from his office in Copenhagen, Lindholm said:
Yet Lindholm said he essentially identifies with what he thinks of American cinema. People are defined by their work. (“That’s why your stories are all about presidents, cops, sheriffs, cowboys, detectives,” he said.) He called it “obsessed with psychology and obsessed with emotions.” he said, contrasting it with European films.
Lindholm said “The Good Nurse” was the right American movie for him and embodied his own narrative philosophy. It should be identity and 50% attractiveness.”
Growing up fascinated by American cultural exports such as jazz and hip-hop, Lindholm spent his early twenties pursuing pursuits such as skateboarding and graffiti before enrolling at the Danish National Film School.
There, he met future collaborators such as fellow Borgen writer Jeppe Gjervig Gram and future wife and producer Caroline Blanco. Before graduating, Lindholm was asked by Winterberg, co-founder of the Dogme 95 film movement, to help write what would become his realism feature for Social in 2010. “Submarino” The same year saw the release of the prison drama R, co-written and directed by Lindholm with Michael Noah, both to wide international acclaim.
His resume quickly grew to include a script for ‘Borgen’ and the 2012 drama. “hunting,” Another collaboration with Winterberg.Lindholm also wrote and directed “hijack” A War, a 2012 thriller about a cargo ship captured by pirates in the Indian Ocean, and a 2015 drama about Danish soldiers in Afghanistan.
According to Lindholm, his constant productivity was driven in part by a desire to make the most of what he assumed to be limited opportunities. I was always afraid that no matter what I did, they would eventually find out I was an imposter,” he explained. “I suddenly made money for the first time in my life and forgot to pay my taxes,” he says. “So it was a blessing in disguise.”
Certain themes have already emerged in Lindholm’s work, and he tends to focus on people in familiar careers whose humanity is put to the test when placed in extremely tense situations.
“It’s always been a person and a system,” said actor Pilou Asbaek, who has appeared in several of Lindholm’s film and television projects. “The system expects you to behave in a certain way. You can make right or wrong decisions within the system that will have lasting consequences for you. “
According to Lindholm, although he had a growing reputation as a filmmaker, he wasn’t necessarily trying to tie it into a career in Hollywood. “I was scared of it,” he said. “The reason he hesitated was that he was basically afraid of losing himself and his vision while searching for the unknown.”
But that reluctance came about six years ago when David Fincher and Charlize Theron approached Lindholm to direct two episodes. “Mindhunter” They are the executive producers of the Netflix serial killer investigation series. He was also allowed to observe Fincher’s directing work on previous episodes, stating that Lindholm was “the perfect film school for me.”
“It gave me the courage to pursue the American Dream,” he added.
Lindholm read the “Good Nurse” script written by Kristy Wilson Cairns (co-writer of “1917” and “Last Night in Soho”) to work on “Mindhunter.” I was on an airplane heading to the United States. And then he decided he wanted to direct it.
In a genre often ridiculed as exploitative and voyeuristic, Lindholm said “Good Nurse” dramatizes Lauren’s quiet bravery more than Karen’s gruesome crime of injecting a patient with a lethal dose of drugs. He said he was interested in transforming
“In these stories, there is no doubt who the villain is,” he said. We had to find a light in that story, and that light became her struggle with Amy the nurse.”
Chastain, who had admired Lindholm’s performance in “Zero Dark Thirty,” agreed that it’s rare to come across a true crime script that doesn’t feel like it glorifies violence. “It’s so often fetishized and shown as power,” she said, adding that in the film, “it’s not violence that stops violence, it’s compassion. It’s treating someone as a human being, not as a monster.” is.”
Eager to work with Lindholm, she and Redmayne signed on to “The Good Nurse.” The actors underwent her two weeks of nurse training and another two weeks of rehearsals before production began in April 2021.
Redmayne said on Lindholm’s first day of filming, he was impressed with Lindholm’s directorial orders. A long, slow zoom in as Karen calmly watches as a team of doctors and nurses attempt to resuscitate a doomed patient.
It will be the opening shot of the movie. “When I finished shooting and saw the take, I immediately understood the essence of the film,” said Redmayne. “I knew his fingerprints were all over the place.”
The star said he was equally impressed with the decisions Lindholm made late in the production. When it started, the director cut the scene and cut it out of the movie entirely. Lindholm decided it was overkill and unrealistic.
Redmayne recalled when the producers rushed to the set. And he was like, ‘No, this is the only moment in the movie that doesn’t come from a real place.
Chastain also felt supported by Lindholm’s on-the-spot ratings. “I want someone to captain the movie. When the director has it, I feel safe.”
Following “The Good Nurse,” Lindholm and “Succession” star Jeremy Strong are tentatively producing “The Best,” dramatizing the lives of several people exposed to toxic debris after September 11th. I am working on a mini-series titled Of Us. Terrorist attack in New York.
It’s a project that Strong described as requiring months of careful preparation, including delving into existing research and journalism, reading first-hand accounts, and talking to people who have experienced the aftermath. It’s a very sensitive and serious issue and he’s just not one to get hung up on it,” Strong said. “He shares the belief that the right to tell any story must be earned, and that certain stories are hard-won.”
Lindholm said that when the gravity of the material starts to overwhelm him, he remembers advice his wife gave him months ago. At the time, he felt particularly burdened with his work on the pandemic and the dramatized “The Investigation.” Efforts to solve a chilling real-life murder case“She said your only responsibility as a filmmaker is to make sure there is hope. Always add hope to the story.
“If you can provide inspiration that makes you feel like you are a part of this world and that there is a way out of total darkness, we are making a difference in our lives and it is worth it.”