Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2022: Eddie Redmayne in The Good Nurse

Eddie Redmayne did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite receiving a BAFTA and SAG nomination, for portraying Charles Cullen in The Good Nurse. 

The Good Nurse follows the investigation into the mysterious death of hospital patients that eventually involves a concerned nurse Amy (Jessica Chastain) and her new coworker. 

So let's talk about Eddie Redmayne a bit, an actor who certainly is idiosyncratic and I can like, however, might be one of the most unpredictable in terms of whatever it is you are going to get from one of his performances. So naturally, I came into this film, about a true story of a serial killer nurse hidden away by uncaring hospital administrations, with a bit of trepidation to see what exactly Redmayne was going to bring. And despite playing a serial killer, for much of the film, this is one of Redmayne's most restrained performances. And I'd say it would've been very easy to overplay this role, as we very early on know he's the killer and the question is how much or how little should one should play the hand of the psychopathy of a man who intentionally poisons patients for the sake of it. And from the opening scene, Redmayne actually plays this idea very much in the margins, and in those margins, he is disturbed by not being an obvious red flag.  

When Chastain's Amy first meets Cullen, Redmayne doesn't show someone who is immediately or obviously concerning. Redmayne mostly shows Cullen to be affable enough if just a bit withdrawn in his way as the new nurse. Oddly enough it features one of Redmayne's most natural-sounding American accents, as it seems attuned well to the character with this kind of very low speaking voice of someone who doesn't exactly demand other's attention. Redmayne's friendly conversations with Chastain even have a decent sort of worker chemistry with one another. Again Redmayne is very natural in just projecting a bit of baggage as he speaks of his own kids and rarely being able to see them, but even that he develops as trying to share it best he can. Even when helping Amy hide her own health issue, to not lose her job, Redmayne's delivery is caring enough as he helps her through it and reassures her. He presents enough of just a normal human's concern, even warmth, and care between the two. Redmayne naturally enough presents Cullen, as a bit sullen but nothing seems more than that. 

Redmayne shows the man who very much is existing within legal society. He doesn't fully hide that there may be something wrong with Cullen, but he in no way makes him an obvious killer. The only scenes early on that grant any sense to Cullen's nature are ones of Cullen looking over his victims, scenes that again I think could've been way overplayed very easily but Redmayne stays very subtle in them. In the opening scene of looking at his victim, there are just little glints of a strange satisfaction on Redmayne's face, nothing so obvious as pure joy, but just some hint of whatever is going on with him. The only history we know is Cullen saw his own mother die in a hospital in a particularly unpleasant way, which Redmayne speaks of with a hushed trauma. It's something that seems to linger but he doesn't even express this in an overt way. The same is true as he cleans the body of his victim, where Redmayne is very quietly disturbing, by just suggesting this sort of strange calm, but almost too calm in the man as it isn't a detached calm, it is almost treating the dead creates the calm. 

What Redmayne uses for much of the film is the context to do the work, and effectively so. When later on you know the truth about Cullen, the creepy factor comes from often that Cullen is so casual despite what he is purposefully doing the whole time. The killer is in him but hardly needs to show himself. Eventually, Cullen is fired, more so for the hospital to be rid of responsibility rather than trying to get him caught, and Amy, who caught onto his killings, is trying to catch him via a wire with the police over lunch. This scene is some brilliant work from Redmayne because, for most of the scene, he's just casually chatting as really a normal person with Chastain and nothing unusual. When Amy steps one step too far, revealing her hand, Redmayne's minor change in expression is absolutely chilling as his eyes start peering and there just is suddenly this loss in any sense of their former relationship, revealing the man that killed so many people. That failure leaves the police to arrest however they need a confession since all the evidence against him is circumstantial. This leads to Redmayne's one big scene, however, in this instance it is big but it works for him. As Redmayne, the whole time in the scene shows the game of Cullen attempting to hide away his psychopathy under interrogation, and his progressively louder and more intense delivery of "I can't" at the request to confess, is striking in itself essentially revealing the real insanity that the man is holding in as there is so much violence in him. However, what I think is actually more chilling is the moment right after where, Redmayne pulls it in, and refashions his face to "normalcy" portraying so effectively a psychopath putting on the show by not acting insane after the outburst. In his final scene, where he confesses fully to Amy, though is more disturbing actually because Redmayne is so quiet in the clarity he delivers every line. The casualness of talking about the death without any real concern, as though it is a list of things he did during the day. The hollowness of the way he says "they didn't stop me", Redmayne is truly unnerving by the blithe indifference of it, as though killing was something he simply did. Eddie Redmayne delivers his best performance here by granting a low key but very potent depiction of evil that thrived from indifference.