The Nurse

The story has been done before (of course) but 'The Nurse' without being entirely original hits a few high notes and certainly keeps you gripped into the watchable, yet predictable series of events. Lisa Zane is fantastic as the black widow, typed nurse, out for the complete revenge.

Nurse Laura Harriman (Lisa Zane) is out to get revenge on Bob Martin (Michael Fairman) and his family. See Laura's dad was so distraught over an embezzlement charge that he killed himself and the rest of the family, leaving poor Laura alone, confused and mentally unstable. Fortunately for her, Bob has a stroke, leaving him completely incapacitated (his fully alert self inside an expressionless body), so he's in need of full time care, so Laura quits her job at the hospital and signs on as the live-in nurse. She seduces the son (John Stockwell), arouses suspicion in the daughter (Janet Gunn) and starts to do away with everyone (often right before the father's eyes). Good acting, particularly from the deliciously wicked Zane, and an overall air of nastiness save this oft-clichéd bitch-from-hell flick (with a rather poor ending) from boredom.

1st watched 10/16/2011 – 3 out of 10(Dir-Rob Malenfant): Mediocre at best revenge flick that although premiered as a theatrical release comes across like a "B" television production with sub-par acting, bad editing including a left-in scene that made no sense, and is also predictable from the beginning to the end. The movie starts out as a man is being charged with embezzlement and being trashed by the local media. The company's boss and family are shown not intending for this to get out, but it does. Distraught, the man charged shoots his wife, child and himself. His daughter, played by Lisa Zane, gets wind of this at her place of work where she is a nurse and blames the company and the boss who let this out to the media. The boss, has a stroke, after he finds out from a reporter about the murderous man's actions and becomes paralyzed to the point where he can only hear what's going on but can't respond. The revengeful nurse then takes on the persona of a former employee, becomes his nurse, and plots to kill him and his entire family. Zane is kind of hammy in her role, but OK as the deviant nurse and the other actors are OK as well. But that's the problem with the entire movie, it's just OK. This obviously was meant for television but apparently was too rough, so they added a couple curse words to get the R rating and released it in the theatres. It was advertised on the DVD I watched as a horror movie, but it isn't a horror movie, and it's not very enjoyable either – so skip this one if at all possible.

The interaction between Janet Gunn and Lisa Zane carry the film and make it more than a predictable nurse-hates-patient story. Sure there are major flaws, like the nurse (Zane) kills the reporter and there is no investigation. But let's skip the small stuff. The movie is worth watching on a rainy or cold winter night. I gave it a 7 because of the technical flops, but the plot is a solid 8.

No pun intended and the movie itself is anything but light or has jokes like the one I made with my summary line. Also no connection with Mary Poppins of course. She wasn't a nurse either - but even if, she would be shocked if anyone would associate her with this mean individual.

Of course the main bad character has her reasons for being the way she is. One main role is mental health, but an inciting incident is the one that pushes her over the edge - no pun intended here either. It is all b-movie material and thriller. Nothing major here and as predictable as one can imagine ... your imagination probably will be way wilder than what you get served. Anyway, have seen worse, but also way better movies with ... well "nurses"