NIGHT NURSE -- Addicted to the Game

Review by Steve Barton II

Have you ever had a job or career that you felt truly passionate about and almost felt you were meant for it? Many healthcare professionals felt that calling early in life whether it was over lost and/or abused animals or seeing an elderly relative in a hospital receiving treatment from the heroes themselves. While emotions can be extremely complex, there have been some unfortunate cases where an individual blurs the lines between passion, love and obsession in the workplace. In the case of Georgia Bernstein’s newest film Night Nurse, timid and quiet nurse Eleni (Cemre Paksoy) begins working in a retirement community where she’s eager to aid folks into their later years. During her job, she encounters an elderly patient Douglas (Bruce McKenzie) who forces her to partake in his scam to rob old men. After the first rush, Eleni becomes infatuated with the scam and Douglas himself until it completely changes everything about her.

There are many allegories or topics that Night Nurse is covering in its 90 minute runtime, but none of it gets too bloated. The biggest one being how Eleni’s character progression is quite similar to that of a drug addict. In the beginning, she is dedicated to her new job and yearns to help others, but the intoxicating allure of being bad calls her like a siren’s song. The case can also be made that Night Nurse is purely about sex and how the power of seduction can alter your entire brain. While there may not be graphic sex scenes present in the film, Night Nurse uses the temptation of sin with the heinous elder scam that has become an horrific epidemic across the entire world. Taking advantage of children or the elderly due to their low cognitive abilities is abhorrent and despicable, but criminals can’t resist the easy win. In this case, one of the main perpetrators is a healthcare professional who claims to be purely fueled by helping people, but she was gone at first sight of the plump apple in Eden.

The clean and sterilized look of Night Nurse contrasts well with the dark tale it’s winding us through. While there aren’t a ton of sets we visit through the nursing home, the ones we see feel real and lived in. The swimming pool scenes are shot with tons of close-ups on these older men and women. It weirdly feels like it’s trying to steer your mind into thinking negatively about them. Zooming in on their sagging imperfections as the chlorine stench wafts through the screen may impose a bias against the elderly, but it’s a bit of an overused horror trope. Ask anyone and they will tell you one of their biggest fears is getting old, so we aren’t crossing new territory with any of that. Outside of the pool, Night Nurse doesn’t have a memorable look or style that you’ll remember, but the setting does feel authentic to an elderly care home even with the strange relationships.

Overall, Night Nurse is an odd and dark slow burn that leaves you angry and disturbed. Anyone that watches the news knows that scams targeting the elderly are a real ongoing issue and hopefully Night Nurse can put a brighter spotlight on this horrible act. The power and greed that comes with money blinds criminals to the possible consequences of their actions and the one-track mind ruins their future. Georgia Bernstein created Eleni to show how easily a pure-hearted person can be manipulated with the promise of love and money. While the film does condemn the criminal acts of elderly scams, it almost seems to approve of the disturbing relationship between the caretaker and patient. When a gross situation is almost played for laughs after a series of incidents, it makes any positive point made previously hollow and weak. Folks familiar with the healthcare system, especially geriatrics, should watch Night Nurse and see if they’ve ever known about situations like this.

Night Nurse is releasing in theaters starting July 10th!

Rating: 2.5/5