"The nights are really special—you’ll see," Mona (Eleonore Hendricks) tells Eleni (Cemre Paksoy) regarding her new job caring for the elderly and infirm in *Night Nurse*; she seems to speak the same language as the new hire when she adds that "it feels good to be needed." Judging by appearances, Eleni values that feeling more than the paycheck when she accepts a position at a palliative care facility; in fact, she is enthusiastic about the prospect of caring for Douglas (Bruce McKenzie)—a patient who is difficult to staff after having tried to seduce his previous caregiver. He clearly appreciates the attention when Mona—who becomes Eleni’s mentor—introduces them; he doesn't seem likely to cause much trouble, as neither his mind nor his body appears to pose a major issue, despite a diagnosis of early-stage dementia.
Naturally, conflict arises in Georgia Bernstein’s fascinating feature debut, but it is never quite what one might expect; after all, a nursing home is the last place one would imagine a tense, psychosexual *neo-noir* unfolding. Beyond the perverse acts Douglas asks Eleni to perform, Bernstein shrewdly seizes the opportunity to explore the codependency between caregiver and patient. The dynamic involves a cunning older man—long past his sexual prime yet still aroused by the idea of exerting control over another person through his seductive prowess—and a young woman who, having yet to find her own path, wishes to cede control of her life to someone else while still feeling she is making a positive contribution. Although Douglas turns out to be everything Eleni could want at this stage of her life, the mutual connection falters when he begins to seek out a challenge instead. For those in the know, describing the film as a surreal fever dream—reminiscent of the lurid, sleazy thrillers that aired on cable TV in the wee hours of the mid-90s—is a compliment; a nod Bernstein seems to confirm by casting none other than Mimi Rogers as Eleni’s supervisor. Yet, beyond its initial guilty-pleasure appeal, the film emerges as the kind of small miracle that John Dahl’s *The Last Seduction* was: a work possessing a startlingly fresh perspective alongside an endearingly classic sensibility. The plot centers on a scam Douglas has concocted to exploit the residents of his community—people with dementia who are unaware of what they are signing away—but the story takes a truly dangerous turn as Eleni grows increasingly frustrated by what he cannot offer her, thereby inverting the dynamic that should theoretically govern the relationship between a caregiver and their patient.
*Night Nurse* is captivating from its very first frames; it issues a compelling invitation—rare in recent cinema—by tracing a telephone cord that proves crucial to Douglas’s scheme, subtly suggesting that the very same cord might end up strangling both the con man and the nurse. Moreover, the film demonstrates that words are often superfluous, thanks to cinematographer Lidia Nikonova (also responsible for the unsettling compositions in Lucy Kerr’s *Family Portrait*); she displays a mastery of *chiaroscuro* as seductive as Douglas himself when he turns on the charm—he being the one who holds the power in a relationship clearly situated in a moral gray area.
That said, Bernstein has a keen ear for dialogue, crafting a push-and-pull dynamic in the exchanges between Douglas and Eleni, and makes a brilliant casting choice in Paksoy—an expressive presence in her first lead role—to go toe-to-toe with a veteran like McKenzie, who conveys the sense that he could devour her alive. (Both acquit themselves admirably in their respective roles.) In a work where much of the tension stems from what the characters—young or old—know or do not know, the film’s greatest comfort is the certainty of being in exceptionally skilled and sure hands.
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