Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Georgia Bernstein
Starring: Cemre Paksoy, Bruce McKenzie, Eleonore Hendricks, Colleen Rose Trundy, Mimi Rogers
Hundreds of thrillers have been centred on the idea of a vulnerable young woman being drawn into a life of crime by a handsome young scoundrel. Writer/director Georgia Bernstein's feature debut Night Nurse might be the first erotic thriller in which a young woman finds herself seduced by a roguish retiree. It's certainly like no other movie I've ever seen.
The young woman with a troubled past here is Eleni (Cemre Paksoy), who takes the role of night nurse at a sprawling exclusive retirement community. She is assigned to look after Douglas (Bruce McKenzie), whose previous nurse walked out after the old codger mistook her for his wife.
What Eleni soon learns is that Douglas' dementia is all an act. He is perfectly sound of mind and along with his day nurse Mona (Eleonore Hendricks) is targeting his fellow residents through a phone scam. It's the same scam June Squibb's character fell for in the recent Thelma, whereby an elderly person receives a call from someone pretending to be a grandchild who has been arrested and urgently needs bail money. Mona takes on the role of a granddaughter while Douglas whispers instructions in her ear. Douglas and Mona are also engaged in a sexual affair, though his "abilities" are somewhat restricted by his age.
Eleni is drawn into this scam one night when Douglas thrusts a phone into her hand and orders her to repeat a series of instructions. She quietly protests but goes along, and just as Douglas seems to have counted on, she is excited by her involvement in this criminal venture to the point that she becomes his latest lover. But what Douglas didn't count on was just how obsessed Eleni would become with both himself and his scam.
Night Nurse opens with the sort of erotically charged scene that wouldn't be out of place in a '90s Shannon Tweed vehicle. We hear a woman - perhaps Eleni, perhaps Mona, perhaps some other accomplice of Douglas - acting out the well rehearsed routine of playing the panicked granddaughter. There is a sexual buzz to her voice, as though she is manning a phone sex line. In extreme close-up the camera follows as the phone cord winds its way around her body. The BDSM aspect is clear from the off, but as the subsequent narrative twists and bends like that phone cord the line between master and sub begins to blur. Initially Douglas is taking advantage of Eleni's innocence, but the more obsessed she becomes the more she demands of Douglas. At a certain point Douglas's real state of mind becomes ambiguous and he may very well be succumbing to the senility he has been faking.
Uncomfortable dynamics permeate Night Nurse, whether it's Douglas pinning Eleni against a fridge and forcing her to play the role of granddaughter or Eleni demanding a doped-up and delirious Douglas acquiesce to her own demands. The movie daringly brushes up against both elder abuse and the sexual manipulation of young women by rich older men. And yet it's undeniably sexy. It's not difficult to accept Douglas' attraction to Eleni (Paksoy has an ethereal beauty that is intoxicating), but we also buy into Eleni's desires towards Douglas.
There are moments of black comedy, and the image of the pyjama-clad Douglas driving around in a convertible while two hot women young enough to be his granddaughters swoon over him like he's the star of some politically incorrect rap video is impossible to take seriously. But Bernstein never patronises her elderly antagonist. As played by McKenzie, a jobbing British actor with a CV that stretches back to the 1960s, Douglas is smart and seductive, and Bernstein and cinematographer Lidia Nikonova cast their female gaze over his wrinkly body in a way that turns him into a genuine object of desire. Paksoy sells this unlikely attraction in how her pupils seem to expand and her lower lip droops when she's in Douglas' presence. Eleni is an addict, and Douglas has introduced her to a drug she never knew she needed.
Night Nurse certainly won't be for everyone. The subject matter will likely be enough to turn away a significant portion of the potential audience, while others will struggle to accept its largely nonsensical plotting. You have to accept that this film isn't set in the real world where Douglas' scam would be quickly solved by the police simply by tracing the phone calls back to his home. The way to view Night Nurse is to think of the retirement community here as akin to the jailhouses of 1970s women in prison movies, a world that exists on its own terms. With her debut, Bernstein has opened a window to let logic fly out and cinematic sensuality take its place.
The score by Steven Jackson and Sam Clapp may evoke Bernard Herrmann's work for Hitchcock, but Bernstein's film draws from the well of European arthouse rather than Hollywood thrillers. It favours a dreamlike atmosphere over coherent and logical plotting, and it features strikingly composed images that will have photography enthusiasts reaching for the pause button to take them in. A mid-movie party scene will prove the litmus test for which sort of viewer can allow themselves to be seduced by Night Nurse's charms. If you think about the logistics of this scene it falls apart, but if you embrace its insanity you're in for a unique cinematic treat.
Night Nurse is in US cinemas from July 10th. A UK/ROI release has yet to be announced.
